100% Tariffs on China’s EVs
2024-09-19 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Toronto) | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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

Rebuilding Cities and Citizens
2024-10-02 10:00 - 11:30 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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.

FilmSocial presents: Kneecap
2025-03-19 19:00 - 21:30 | Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario, M6H1N1, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is very pleased to present the award winning movie KNEECAP as the latest installment in the ongoing FilmSocial series.
In keeping with the work of the Leo Panitch School, this film is a riveting political story of the fight for Indigenous language rights, for justice and against occupation. It is also a hilarious, satirical commentary on life today in the North of Ireland, which the movie captures quite brilliantly.
When fate brings Belfast schoolteacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed ‘low life scum’ Naoise & Liam Og, the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish language, KNEECAP fast become the unlikely figureheads of a Civil Rights movement to save their mother tongue. But the trio must first overcome police, paramilitaries & politicians trying to silence their defiant sound – whilst their anarchic approach to life often makes them their own worst enemies.
In this fiercely original sex, drugs and hip-hop biopic KNEECAP play themselves, laying down a global rallying cry for the defense of native cultures.
The film will begin with a short presentation and after the showing there will be a general discussion on the politics and implications of the film’s subject today.
When: March 19 – Doors: 6:45pm
Where: Eyesore Cinema, Toronto

AI's Hidden Abode of Production: Labour, Capital, Conflict
2025-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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.

Witnessing and Resisting
2025-07-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Ontario
Amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza and continued Israeli attacks across the region, much of the world’s attention has been diverted away from the worsening situation in the West Bank. Palestinians across the West Bank have experienced increased violence, demolitions, and displacement from settlers and Israeli Occupation Forces.
Toronto based activist Anna Lippman has recently returned from spending three months on the front lines of settler and State violence in Masafer Yatta, or the South Hebron Hills, in the occupied West Bank. Made famous by the Academy Award winning film, No Other Land, Anna witnessed the steadfastness of these communities firsthand. Hear about the experience of living with a small farming community, engaging in daily life, and coming face to face with soldiers, police, border security, and extremist settlers. In her three months, Anna was arrested once, detained over ten times, witness to three arsons, and was a victim of six violent attacks by settler youth.
Anna will share her experiences and perspective as a Jewish Canadian standing against her own people. Together we’ll hear about these precarious communities that continue to resist displacement and ethnic cleansing as well as how you too can go to Palestine as a protective witness. The evening will feature a presentation, as well as messages from Anna’s Palestinian hosts, and information on how to support their continued sumud.
Pre-registration is mandatory for this event. Location to be shared upon registration.

The Moving Past
2025-07-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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 | Ontario
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
