Socialist Project

The Possibilities of Left Government in Europe
2025-09-24 17:00 - 19:30 (America/Toronto) | 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

FilmSocial Presents: Force of Evil
2025-09-24 18:45 - 21:00 | Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario, M6H1N1, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is very pleased to present Force of Evil (1948) as the second installment in our special series of film screenings on the topic of money.
Featuring powerhouse performances from Beatrice Pearson and John Garfield, Force of Evil is a masterpiece of American film and is often considered the high point of the film-noir genre. The film was the last contribution from director Abraham Polonsky before he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and subsequently blacklisted by the industry for his refusal to divulge the names of fellow Communist Party members.
Wednesday September 24 – Doors: 6:45pm
Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor St W, Toronto
Free/PWYC

The Moving Past
2025-10-12 09:00 - 2025-11-09 21:00
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
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

Rally: No To Hate; Everyone Belongs
2025-10-25 11:30 - 13:00 | Queen’s Park, South Lawn, Toronto, Ontario
On October 25th at 11:30 am, join a unity rally to say: IMMIGRANTS ARE WELCOME HERE, NO TO HATE AND SCAPEGOATING!
“Canada First” are bringing their hate to Queen’s Park on October 25th. They seek to spread vicious hate, blaming immigrants for crises in housing, jobs and social services. This far-right group, that looks to UK fascist Tommy Robinson for inspiration, is promoting “remigration” – a call for mass deportation of people of non-European or non-Christian descent.
This is part of a growing threat around the world from the far-right. Over the years, wherever white supremacist and Islamophobic hate groups reared their heads in Toronto’s public spaces, they have been challenged. On October 25th, bring your flags, placards, banners and energy – Solidarity not hate! No to racism and Islamophobia!

Hamilton - We're Coming for You and Your Rotten System
2025-10-25 13:00 - 14:30
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.

Ottawa - We're Coming for You and Your Rotten System
2025-10-27 19:00 - 20:00
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: Mon 27 Oct, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Where: Octopus Books

FilmSocial presents: Wall Street
2025-10-29 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 “Wall Street” (1987) as the final installment in our special series of film screenings on the topic of money.
“Greed, for lack of a better word, is Good”
On the Wall Street of the 1980s, Bud Fox is a stockbroker full of ambition, doing whatever he can to make his way to the top. Admiring the power of unsparing corporate raider Gordon Gekko, Fox entices Gekko into mentoring him by providing insider trading. As Fox becomes embroiled in greed and underhanded schemes, his decisions eventually threaten the livelihood of his scrupulous father. Faced with this dilemma, Fox questions his loyalties.
Directed and co-written by Oliver Stone, Wall Street is a classic portrayal of capitalist excess, power, and the desire for wealth above all else. A radical viewing of the film provides not just a critique of stocktraders who take their ruthlessness too far, but an indictment of the system that allows – and rewards – their greed in the first place.
RSVP on TicketTailor.

Crisis & Resistance
2025-11-20 19:00 - 21:00
The Struggle for Ontario’s Universities and Colleges
Ontario’s higher education sector faces a perfect storm of austerity, rising precarity, and eroding academic freedom. This has provoked a sustained wave of resistance, marked by near-continuous faculty, staff, and student-worker strikes over recent years–exemplified by the recent OPSEU support staff strike.
Learning from these Ontario struggles and from successful, militant unionism in the United States, this event argues for a new strategic direction. We will explore the structural challenges and strategic issues that higher education workers face and consider the potential for a path forward based on commitments to wall-to-wall organization and new forms of sectoral solidarity and joint action.
Registration required – Please register here.
When: November 20 – 7pm
Where: Downtown Toronto – Venue shared upon registration
Who: All those who work in the higher education sector, including non-academic workers.
Light refreshments will be served.
Speakers TBA

FilmSocial presents: The Time That Remains
2025-11-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario, M6H1N1, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is very pleased to present The Time that Remains (2009) as the next film in the FilmSocial series of socialist film screenings.
“THE TIME THAT REMAINS is a semi-biographical film, in four episodes, about a family, my family, from 1948 until recent times. The film is inspired by my father’s private diaries, starting from when he was a resistance fighter in 1948, and by my mother’s letters to family members who were forced to leave the country since that time. Combined with my intimate memories of them and with them, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained and were labeled ‘Israeli-Arabs’, living as a minority in their own homeland.” – Elia Suleiman
The film represents an often surrealist portrayal of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation set over 60 years. Writer and Director Elia Suleiman brings us a story that’s both comedic and dark, realistic and absurd, as well as hopeful, all at the same time. Looking back at the this film from over 15 years ago is a glimpse through time of what’s remained constant and what has drastically changed since the escalation of Israel’s genocide in 2023.
Register at tickettailor.com.

Fighting to Win Workshop
2025-12-07 09:30 - 16:00
Led by John Clarke, former organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), this one-day workshop will consider the type of mass movement necessary to confront our current reality of austerity, militarism, climate disasters, and attacks on workers and immigrants and win real improvements and justice for working people and our environment.
December 7th, 2025 at 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM
PSAC Kingston Regional Office
201–863 Princess Street
Kingston, Ontario
Register

Book launch: Cybernetic Circulation Complex
2026-01-23 19:00 - 20:30 | College United Church, 502 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, Canada
Big Tech firms dominate the global economy. But what value do they actually produce? In Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Big Tech and Planetary Crisis (Verso, 2024), Nick Dyer-Witheford and Alessandra Mularoni argue that the role of firms like Amazon and Google, Palantir and Uber, is in the speeding up and automation of the circulation of commodities. Big Tech aims to subject everything from advertising and shopping, to logistics and financial services to the level of control and predictability that capital has secured in industrial production.
But there is a way out of the multiple crises that Big Tech has helped precipitate. If we are to break their grip on the global economy then it’ll take more than just antitrust legislation or reducing individual time online. What is required instead is a new, ambitious and comprehensive program of democratic collective planning that can move us beyond capitalism and benefit life on earth over profit.
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is honoured to host the authors of the book for the Toronto launch of this exciting new book! All are welcome to join us for this timely discussion as we grapple with how to challenge the Big Tech firms that are quickly cementing their control over international commerce and policy.

Higher Education Organizing Meeting
2026-01-29 18:30 - 20:30
Building on our first successful meeting in November, we’re forging ahead with our sectoral-wide organizing strategy in the higher education sector. Our second organizing meeting, which will be held on January 15th, is focused on creating a Solidarity Pact for higher education workers. Sean Smith – a former activist and organizer with the Toronto Airport Workers Council – will be joining us to discuss what a solidarity pact is, how Toronto Airport Workers used it as an organizing tool, and how we can develop something similar to build our collective power across the education sector.
The purpose of January’s meeting is threefold: (1) understanding what a Solidarity Pact is and how it can help us develop unity across the sector; (2) begin constructing our own Solidarity Pact; and (3) strategize ways we can use our Solidarity Pact as an organizing tool across the higher education sector.
For this next meeting, we ask that you bring a friend/coworker in the education sector and feel free to forward the registration page to any higher education worker who you think would be interested in getting involved. See it as a mini structure test!
Where: College Street United Church, 502 Bathurst Street, Toronto
When: January 29th – Refreshments at 6:30pm, event start at 7:00pm
How: Registration required – Register here

FilmSocial Presents: The Day Iceland Stood Still
2026-01-31 19:00 - 20:30 | Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1C7, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is very pleased to present a special screening of The Day Iceland Stood Still.
What if every woman simply took the day off? The Day Iceland Stood Still is a film that answers that question. In Iceland, on October 24, 1975, women walked out and stopped working. 90% of the women of Iceland refused to work, cook, or take care of the children. They brought their country to a standstill and catapulted Iceland to the “best place in the world to be a woman” today.
Join us for the launch of the 2026 season of FilmSocial socialist film screenings! The first screening of the year will be a very special one as we gather for a screening of the incredible 2024 film The Day Iceland Stood Still from celebrated documentarians Pamela Hogan and Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir. We’re very excited that we’ll also be hearing from the filmmakers directly via video message.
We’re also honoured to have longtime activist Judy Rebick join us as a very special guest!
Doors open at 6:30pm.

Booklaunch: Organizing Amazon
2026-02-05 19:00 - 21:00 | College United Church, 502 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, Canada
Amazon workers in Coventry, England have won breakthrough wage gains through years of strikes and organizing at the global giant. Now, a new book documents these achievements, and the militant, grassroots methods the workers and their GMB union employed to build worker power.
Organizing Amazon: Building Worker Power Under Conditions of Fragmentation, Precarity and Regimentation offers a rich case study of the factors contributing to the union’s successes and setbacks. It provides a practical organizing model applicable beyond Amazon, offering strategies to engage the workforce, sustain support and develop leadership.
We are incredibly honoured to host the author of the book Tom Vickers, and longtime labour activist Jonathan Rosenblum, as well as two workers from the Coventry facility for the first stop on their North American organizing tour. The evening will feature a discussion of the lessons to be learned from the campaign in Coventry and what strategies will be needed for the Canadian labour movement to begin challenging the Amazon behemoth.

Notes Toward a Digital Workers’ Inquiry
2026-02-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1C7, Canada
Join us as we celebrate the launch of Notes Toward a Digital Workers Inquiry, a brand new book full of first-hand accounts from the tech sector’s resurgent labor movement as artificial intelligence gains ground in every facet of our lives.
As tech billionaires align with Trump, they are also launching a renewed assault on labor through artificial intelligence and alienating tactics. But for now, it still takes workers to make fortunes for the bosses, and collective action is again on the rise. Previously thought to be “unorganizable,” these workers are part of a North American movement that is reaffirming faith in collective revolutionary action through new methods of organizing, new ways of association, and a new synthesis of traditional labor activities with original research.
To capture this growing class consciousness, the Capacitor Collective has conducted ten illuminating interviews with platform workers and organizers whose efforts align traditional motives with new tactics in a text that shakes up the worker inquiry tradition and imagines new ways to produce knowledge with and for the movement.

Introduction to Socialism
2026-02-22 14:00 - 2026-04-12 21:00
Curious about socialism? Interested about if it is really possible and taking a sober look at the problems it will face? Want to discuss how to begin affecting change right now?
In these uncertain and dangerous times, The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is a space to listen, discuss and challenge the contemporary relevancy of socialism.
The School’s flagship course, Introduction to Socialism, is designed for both those experienced activists always looking to learn more, and those newer to socialist ideas and full of questions. It will not only provide a unique venue for collectively tackling important topics, but also a welcoming space where any question relevant to socialist organizing, no matter how basic or advanced, can be raised and discussed.
Instead of providing precise definitions and historical readings, the course will focus on understanding the structures of capitalism in order to challenge it and begin building a better world. We will rely on the ideas and lived experience of participants to enhance the presentations, examples, and collective discussions that make up each session.
Over 8 weeks we’ll explore topics such as what and who is the working class, what makes socialism different, how we can overcome political barriers, how socialists can approach elections and winning reforms in the existing state, what role trade unions and political parties have played for working class struggles, and much more!

FilmSocial: The Organizer
2026-02-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario, M6H1N1, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is very pleased to present The Organizer (1963) as the next film in the FilmSocial series of socialist film screenings.
Set in Turin, Italy at the turn of the 20th century, the story follows the workers of a textile factory, one of whom suffers a serious injury caused by exhaustion at the end of 14-hour shift. When workers stage a walk out after the factory owners refuse to shorten the work day, determination wanes as they begin to fear for their jobs and return to their work benches. It’s not until a labour activist (Marcello Mastroianni) on the run from Genoan police appears and passionately shares from past organizing experience that the workers are emboldened to go on strike, and in the process begin to understand the sacrifices that come with holding their ground.
When: Wednesday February 25th @6:45pm
Where: Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor St W, Toronto
Who: All are welcome! Free registration is recommended.

Oil, Capitalism, and Climate
2026-02-27 19:00 - 21:00 | College United Church, 502 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, Canada
All are invited to join us for the annual Leo Panitch Winter Lecture! We are honoured to welcome esteemed author and academic Adam Hanieh back to Toronto to deliver this year’s talk.
This event marks the fourth edition of the school’s annual lecture, held in the memory of the late Leo Panitch.
Adam Hanieh will discuss how understanding oil’s place in world capitalism is key to grasping geopolitical dynamics and global finance, reviving vital climate struggles, and challenging the structural interests underpinning the system itself. He will also explore the connections between our fossil-fuel centred world and the contemporary politics of Palestine and the wider Middle East.
At a time when the world’s attention is being pulled in myriad directions by ongoing genocide, threats of war, economic instability, and rising authoritarianism, the role that resources such as oil play in global politics often go under-noticed. Amidst this chaos, governments and capital are massively expanding fossil fuel investment, leaving us to face a worldwide ecological crisis that is set to only hasten in the coming years.
Oil itself is woven into the fabric of this modern world in obvious but also surprising ways. Much more than an energy source or transport fuel, oil has a foundational place in all aspects of contemporary life – no challenge to the fossil fuel industry can be effective without taking this fact seriously. Oil greases the wheels of global capitalism. The world’s oil and gas trade is also rapidly changing, bringing with it shifting economic interdependencies across the Middle East and East Asia.
When – Friday 27 February – doors open: 6:30pm, talk starts 7pm, social to follow
Where – College Street United Church – 454 College Street, Toronto ON
How – Advance registration required. Free/PWYC
