Grassy Narrows River Run 2024
2024-09-18 12:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) | ON
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 | ON
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.

How to Unionize Your Workplace
2024-11-02 10:00 - 2024-11-03 16:00 | ON
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

Climate Change is a Class Issue
2025-01-14 18:00 - 19:30 | ON
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 | ON
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 | ON
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.

AI's Hidden Abode of Production: Labour, Capital, Conflict
2025-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 | ON
This talk dispels the myth that generative AI is an autonomous force with a will of its own. Focusing in on the AI industry’s hidden abode of production, the talk centers on how AI is designed, built, and maintained by workers—both waged and unwaged—employed by big tech giants and a vast international network of contractors and sub-contractors. The talk recognizes the human labour powering AI, shedding light on the AI industry’s dependence on human knowledge and skill and also showing how AI is being used by firms to deskill and automate labour in creative industry fields like acting, music, writing, and visual arts.
Additionally, the talk surveys some of the ways workers are contesting AI-driven deskilling and automation through unions, policy advocacy, and social media campaigns. Ultimately, this talk challenges the distraction of AI’s techno-determinist hype and attends to how workers both make and push back against AI’s disruptive impacts.

Land Day
2025-03-29 14:00 - 16:00 | Yonge-Dundas, Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto, ON, Canada
Join us on March 29th in a protest to reaffirm our commitment to our land and struggle. Yom al-Ard (يوم الأرض), or Land Day, recalls the events of March 30, 1976 when six unarmed Palestinians were killed during protests against Israel’s theft of Palestinian land. Israel had ordered the confiscation of approximately 5,000 acres of land belonging to Palestinians in the Galilee. This was a step in Israel’s plan to “Judiase Galilee” after the occupation of Palestine in 1948. Since then, March 30 has become a central date in the Palestinian collective memory; a memory of the 1976 land dispossessions and the brutality of the occupation’s response to Palestinian resistance.
Today is no different. Until this very moment, Israel continues its expansionist colonial agenda in the West Bank and the rest of occupied Palestine.
For us, every day is Land Day. On March 29 at Yonge and Dundas Square, we will commemorate the lives lost in the fight for our land and reiterate what Palestinian poet Tawfiq Zayyad said:
In Lidda, in Ramla, in the Galilee
We shall remain like a wall upon your chest
And in your throat like a cactus thorn
And in your eyes, a sandstorm.
We shall remain.

Book Launch: Against the Crisis
2025-04-11 19:00 - 21:00 | CSI Annex, 720 Bathurst St, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2R4, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is honoured to welcome Ståle Holgersen for the Toronto launch of his new book Against the Crisis: Economy and Ecology in a Burning World!
If crisis defines our era, we need a coherent socialist policy in response. Today’s economic and ecological crises are not exceptions to an otherwise functioning system but integral to its operation. It is naive to see these upheavals as opportunities for reform or revolution. They are the bedrock of the status quo. Fortunately, the vicious circle sustaining capitalism is not founded on an iron law. Our historical mission in the face of the climate crisis is to create a historical exception to the rule. It is time for ecosocialism against crisis.
Capitalism produces crises and crises reproduce capitalism. We need an ecosocialist way out.
Published by Verso Books Ståle Holgersen’s new book Against the Crisis is a powerful intervention in favour of an ecosocialist response to modern capitalism’s seemingly rotating door of crisis and calamity.
When: 11 April – 7pm
Where: Centre for Social Innovation – Annex, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto
How: Register for free to save your spot

A Left Program for the Future of Labour
2025-04-24 15:00 - 17:00 | ON
Raquel Varela is a social historian and researcher in global labour history. She is an assistant professor at Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Autonomous Section on Education and General Training). She is the President of the Observatory for Living and Working Conditions and coordinator of Social Data/Nova Sustainability. Her area of research pertains to social sciences and humanities, with an emphasis on the subjects of history of revolutions and the labour movement, history and global sociology of work, and a global perspective on education and work. She is the author of A People’s History of the Portuguese Revolution and A People’s History of Europe From World War I to Today (Pluto Press).
The talk is organized by Marxist Studies from Asian & International Perspectives (MSGAP), Socialist Project, Socialist Register, and Associação Cultural 25 de Abril (Toronto).
When: Thursday, 24 April 2025, 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Where: Room 140 | HNES Building Keele Campus | York University

Trump’s Tariffs: Building a Working-Class Response
2025-04-24 19:00 - 21:00 | ON
US President Trump’s tariffs and trade policies represent a fundamental attack on Canadian working people. In our workplaces and communities,we are faced with layoffs, intensified attacks on social programs and rights, job security and potentially deep economic recession.
Given Canada’s integration and trade dependence with the US, working class, left, and environmental organizations have to find ways to debate collective strategies, share our analyses, defend working people, and build a challenge to business and business-oriented governments.
We invite you to join us for an evening of urgently needed debate and discussion on building a fighting response both to Trump’s attacks on working people, both in Canada and internationally.
Where: College Street United Church, 502 Bathurst St, Toronto
When: Thursday April 24, 7:00pm.

Organizing 101 /w IWW
2025-04-26 09:00 - 2025-04-27 17:00 | ON
The IWW’s Organizer Training 101 (OT101) is a skill-based training that will teach you how to organize a union at your job, take action and win better working conditions for you and your coworkers.
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Date: April 26 – 27 (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 9am – 5pm
The training consists of two 8 hour sessions. We’ll contact you closer to the date with location details. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

77 Years of Ongoing Nakba
2025-05-17 14:00 - 16:00 | ON
For 77 years, the Palestinian people have endured genocide, sieges, dispossession, and forced displacement at the hands of the Zionist colonial project. And for 77 years – they have resisted. Palestinians continue to fight for their land, their freedom, and their return.
As the genocide in Gaza intensifies, violence in the West Bank escalates, and attacks on our movement grow, now is the time to show the ruling class that the world rejects Zionism – and that the masses stand with Palestine.
In Palestine and in exile, the struggle for liberation continues. We refuse to be silenced.
When: Saturday, May 17th, 2pm
Where: Yonge and Dundas Square
Organized by Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto Chapter.

Crises, Contradictions, and Collective Life
2025-06-02 10:00 - 2025-06-04 20:00 | OISE, 252 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V6, Canada
The contemporary moment is defined by profound threats to collective life: from intensifying genocidal projects in Palestine, Sudan, and the Congo, to a resurgent fascism and militarism across the globe, to the undermining of Black and Indigenous life in shifting practices of racial and colonial domination, to capitalism’s broader threat to the ecological conditions of life as such. At the same time, new movements, new forms of struggle, and new modes of thought have emerged to answer these challenges. How can socialism – a theory and practice oriented toward the liberation of collective life from the stultifying, atomizing, and murderous tendencies of capital – answer these intensifying threats to collective life?
This year’s conference is therefore situated in and amid the contradictions of collective life, of intellectual life and political action in the context of scorched earth, genocidal politics. At the same time, we cannot decontextualize this conference from the broader politics of today; the urgency of the moment and its challenge to intellectual life was highlighted by universities’ attempts to repress protests against Israel’s genocidal war in Palestine. What does it mean to have a conference negotiating the future of socialist thought and action in a setting undergirded by the funding of genocide and repression of critique? As such, the conference calls for contributions that ask how stretching our analyses – emphasizing new strategies, new tactics, and new frameworks – can answer this call.

Peoples' March for Housing Justice
2025-06-14 13:00 - 15:00 | ON
Peoples’ March for Housing Justice
AGAINST GREEDY LANDLORDS AND DEVELOPERS
When: June 14th 2025 at 1:00pm
Where: 214-230 Sherbourne St (Dundas & Sherbourne)
Community rally, lunch, and march!
Join us as we rally together for housing justice.
We will meet for lunch at Dundas & Sherbourne, the site of a long fought battle for social housing.
After lunch, we will march to the Financial District, home of some of the country’s largest developers.
www.instagram.com

No NATO War Summit!
2025-06-21 10:00 - 2025-06-22 21:00 | ON
A group of organisations and activists, united in the Counter Summit Coalition for Peace and Justice, is organising a demonstration and counter summit against NATO in The Hague on 21 and 22 June. In the weekend preceding the NATO summit, the coalition wants to make its voice heard.
The counter-summit will feature panel discussions, workshops and lectures on the dangers of NATO’s military policy and alternative solutions for sustainable and just peace. This will be followed by a demonstration against the NATO war summit. The organisers expect a diverse group of participants from the Netherlands and abroad.
In the coming period, the organisation will be organising the counter-summit and demonstration and spreading its message. Through activism, lectures and articles, they will raise awareness of the opposition to militarisation and the need for alternatives.

Booklaunch: Health and Health Care Inequities
2025-06-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1C7, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is honoured to host the Toronto launch of Health and Healthcare Inequities by author and healthcare worker Arnel Borras.
The book provides an in-depth examination of health and healthcare inequities, delving into the interplay between power dynamics, policy advocacy, evidence-based research, and political economy. It uniquely integrates document and interview data to critically analyze how inequalities related to class, race, ethnicity, and gender contribute to health inequities.
By exploring the roles of various social systems – economic, political, cultural, and institutional – the book exposes the complex mechanisms perpetuating these disparities. What sets this work apart is its explicit argument that capitalism, integrally imbricated with neocolonialism, racism, and sexism, is the fundamental driver of health and health care inequities. It challenges prevailing narratives and a distinct perspective by advocating for socialist-oriented solutions.
The Leo Panitch School is thrilled to welcome Arnel and a number of key contributors to speak to the themes, challenges, and arguments raised in this important new book.

The Moving Past
2025-07-18 19:00 - 21:00 | ON
Between 1917 and 1936 the Governments of Ontario and Canada produced hundreds of films on various subjects like farming techniques, industrial technology, vacations for the wealthy and “appropriate” workplace behaviour, among others. The Ontario Motion Picture Bureau, (OMPB) made educational films for “farmers, school children, factory workers and other classes.” The Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, (CGMPB) advertised “Canada’s scenic attractions, agricultural resources and industrial development.”
Today these films provide a rare glimpse at how work, industry, gender, and class was understood and promoted by the state over 100 years ago. The narratives in the films avoided overt discussions of politics. Unions are invisible in these films, though they feature industries where unions were militant and active. Similarly, protests of any kind do not appear, yet in their absence, they have much to say about workplace struggle.
Several of these historical films have been restored via The Moving Past, a film restoration and history project. Join us as we watch a selection of films that address labour, indigenous land use, gender, and social class in the 1920’s. We’ll also be hearing from the curator of the project, David Sobel, on the history behind the films, the project’s origins and why resources such as these are so invaluable for those of us trying to understand the past while we struggle for a better world today.
Location: Downtown Toronto – Venue TBA.

Hot Cargo and Labour’s Fight for Justice in Palestine
2025-07-20 13:00 - 15:00 | ON
As we approach 2 years since the Zionist entity has launched a brutal genocidal war against the Palestinian people, it is our duty, now more than ever, to disrupt the flow of goods, services, and arms to the state of Israel.
Our distinguished panelists will share key insights and perspectives with us, to chart a path forward for workers in Canada and across the globe.
Be sure to register, share, and attend.

Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution - Feat. Gregory Wilpert
2025-08-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1C7, Canada
It has been 26 years since Hugo Chávez first assumed the presidency of Venezuela in 1999. Since then, Venezuela has gone through enormous ups and downs, and mostly downs since Nicolas Maduro took over from Chavez following his death in 2013.
Given Venezuela’s current challenging situation, what lessons can be drawn from the Bolivarian Revolution for future revolutionary projects? And what is the meaning of the Bolivarian project in the larger context of Latin American politics in the 21st century more generally? What do these lessons mean for socialist organizing and activism today?
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is honoured to be hosting Gregory Wilpert, author and longtime journalist covering Venezuela, for a special talk and discussion to explore these questions and more.
When: Monday August 25, 7pm
Location: Friends House, 60 Lowther Ave, Toronto.

FilmSocial presents: L'Argent
2025-08-27 19:00 - 21:00 | ON
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is very pleased to present L’Argent (1983) as the first installment in our special series of film screenings on the topic of money.
A forged 500-franc note is cynically passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into the hands of a genuine innocent who doesn’t see it for what it is – which will have devastating consequences on his life, causing him to turn to crime and murder…
Partially inspired by the writings of Leo Tolstoy, L’Argent represents the last film made by acclaimed French director Robert Bresson. Often considered a masterpiece, the film is a sweeping exploration of the destructive power of money.
The film will be presented in French with English subtitles.
When: August 27 – Doors: 6:45pm
Where: Eyesore Cinema, Toronto, ON
Free/PWYC

Fighting to Win: Ten Week Course Feat. John Clarke
2025-09-08 18:00 - 2025-10-12 20:00 | ON
A Ten Week Course for Union and Community Activists Facilitated by John Clarke, Former Organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).
Unions and social movements today are operating in a very challenging situation. There is great economic uncertainty, the worsening impact of climate change and a global situation marked by the growing threat of conflict and war. When workers strike or communities under attack take to the streets, it seems that victories are much much harder to win and past gains more difficult to defend.
This course will grapple with these questions by looking at the forms of exploitation and oppression that exist in society and the means by which the power structure acts to limit and contain our struggles. The course will move towards a discussion of how our movements can overcome the factors that hold them back and to fight to win!
Mondays at 6pm beginning September 8
Location: Bloor-Yonge area of Toronto
No course fees; donations gratefully accepted.

The Possibilities of Left Government in Europe
2025-09-24 17:00 - 19:30 | OISE, 252 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V6, Canada
Is it possible to have a left government in Europe, today or is any attempt toward it going to fail: will political parties capitulate and end up implementing neoliberal policies? How is it possible to actually initiate a process of profound social transformation in an anticapitalist direction? Is it possible to combine government with forms of counter-power or even dual power from below? Is it possible to resist the systemic violence induced by capitalist globalisation and financial, monetary and institutional configurations such as those of the Eurozone? What role can political organisations play in such a perspective? These are some of the crucial open strategic questions that the Left is facing today and which need to be discussed…
Panagiotis Sotiris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology of the University of the Aegean in Mytilene and a journalist. He is an editorial board member of Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory. He has authored and edited many books, including A Philosophy for Communism? Rethinking Althusser (Brill 2020/ Haymarket 2021) and Crisis, Movement, Strategy: The Greek Experience (Brill 2018/Haymarket 2019). His book Hegemony, Strategy, Organisation. Reading Gramsci Today is forthcoming with Brill at the Historical Materialism Book Series.
Sept 24th, at OISE, Nexus Lounge, 12th Floor.
Register at hcaao.org

The Moving Past
2025-10-12 09:00 - 2025-11-09 21:00 | ON
Between 1918 and 1929, two entities – the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau and the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, the first state-sponsored film organizations in the world – produced over a thousand silent films. These films took on a variety of subjects, among which were showcases of scenic attractions, celebration of industrial technology and educational material intended for farmers and factory workers.
Today, they provide a unique insight into how the state promoted views on labour, gender and indigenous peoples over a century ago, and provoke an interesting contrast – or the lack of it – with how those views are promoted today.
A selection of those films has been restored (with added period music) and compiled by David Sobel, through The Moving Past project, where the final products can be viewed at no cost. Additionally, an event was held earlier this summer in partnership with the Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education where a few of them were shown, with additional commentary by the curator.
More restorations are in progress and should be available on the website soon. Stay tuned as well for a second event with some of these new films later this year. See the YouTube trailer.
Note: this event is not scheduled yet, and as such the dates at the bottom do not apply.

Leo Panitch School Fundraising Party
2025-10-19 16:00 - 19:00 | College United Church, 502 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, Canada
The Leo Panitch School warmly invites you to our very first annual fundraising party. Gather together with us as we celebrate three years of providing community based socialist education!
All are welcome at this family friendly event featuring live music, delicious food, raffles, prizes, activities for the kids, and much more! Make sure to bring along cash as there will also be beverages, merchandise, and plenty of books on offer. All proceeds of the afternoon will go directly to providing working class educational opportunities here in Toronto and beyond.
While talks, courses, book launches, and workshops are all great, we need to remember that any organized movement has to be based on building common connections among each other. Let’s put the social back in socialism!
When: Sunday October 19 4pm-7pm. Drop in for a quick chat or stay the whole time!
Location: College Street United Church, 452 College St, Toronto.
Tickets: PWYC $0-30. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Fundraiser for Medical Aid in Gaza
2025-10-24 18:30 - 20:30 | ON
Join us for an evening of solidarity and support. All proceeds will go to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to provide lifesaving care in Gaza.
Friday, October 24 · 6:30 – 8:30pm EDT
58 Cecil Street Toronto, ON

Hamilton - We're Coming for You and Your Rotten System
2025-10-25 13:00 - 14:30 | ON
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is honoured to welcome longtime organizer Jonathan Rosenblum to Hamilton for the launch of his brand new book We’re Coming for You and Your Rotten System!
From inside Kshama Sawant’s historic tenure in Seattle City Hall comes a blueprint for twenty-first-century socialists, a counterpoint to the common strategies of mainstream progressives today.
Seattle was the first major city in the US to mandate a $15 minimum wage; the first to implement a payroll tax on Amazon to build affordable housing; the first to secure a bevy of renters’ rights laws, making good on the slogan, “Housing is a human right.” In a municipal government dominated by pro-business Democrats, Kshama Sawant and the popular street movements she led against major corporations headquartered in the region – including Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks – won battles that would transform the city’s trajectory for years to come.
When: Sat 25 Oct, 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT
Where: Solidarity Place, L8H 1B5

Booklaunch: We're Coming for You and Your Rotten System
2025-10-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1C7, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is honoured to welcome longtime organizer Jonathan Rosenblum back to Toronto for the launch of his brand new book We’re Coming for You and Your Rotten System.
From inside Kshama Sawant’s historic tenure in Seattle City Hall comes a blueprint for twenty-first-century socialists, a counterpoint to the common strategies of mainstream progressives today.
Seattle was the first major city in the US to mandate a $15 minimum wage; the first to implement a payroll tax on Amazon to build affordable housing; the first to secure a bevy of renters’ rights laws, making good on the slogan, “Housing is a human right.” In a municipal government dominated by pro-business Democrats, Kshama Sawant and the popular street movements she led against major corporations headquartered in the region – including Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks – won battles that would transform the city’s trajectory for years to come.
We’re Coming for You and Your Rotten System tells this extraordinary story from the inside. Jonathan Rosenblum, who worked in Sawant’s office and alongside community activists, weaves together intimate story-telling and political analysis to show how and why the movement succeeded where other progressive outsiders – such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – have failed. For political activists searching desperately to make sense of the world after the reelection of Donald Trump, the Seattle experience offers a vital framework for fighting our way out of the despairing miasma of twenty-first-century capitalism.
