Leo Panitch School Fundraising Party
2025-10-19 16:00 - 19:00 (America/Toronto) | 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.

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 - 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

Socialism and Capitalism - SP Fredericton
2026-03-16 19:00 - 2026-03-17 21:00
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is thrilled to be supporting a brand new course: Socialism and Capitalism organized by the Fredericton Committee of the Socialist Project. The course represents the very first Leo Panitch School program on the east coast!
Our 8-week course examines the historical development of socialism as a response to the continual evolution of capitalism. We ask: “What is socialism now and how did we get here?” And we ask: “What is capitalism now and how has it changed?” All the while we trace the evolution of socialism as an analytical and political paradigm responding to the harmful and often violent effects of capitalism. Throughout our journey we will stress that the essence of socialism involves the desire to get beyond the horrors, misery, and trauma caused by capitalism.
Click here for course outline
Click here to register
When: Monday evenings at 7pm beginning March 16.
Where: In person in Fredericton, NB – Venue to be shared with registrants

FilmSocial Presents: Norma Rae
2026-03-25 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 Norma Rae (1979) as the next film in the FilmSocial series of socialist film screenings.
Set in a small-town Southern textile mill, the film follows Norma Rae (Sally Field), a courageous worker and single mother, who becomes politically active in her workplace after meeting Reuben Warshowsky (Ron Liebman), a charismatic New York labor organizer who arrives in town to confront crushing employment conditions at the factory and help workers form their own union. After her father dies suddenly on the mill floor, Norma is thrown deeper into the struggle, risking her job, relationships, and community standing to confront the bosses and organise her often-reluctant coworkers.
Directed by Martin Ritt, who was blacklisted himself during the Red Scare, this Oscar-winning film is based on the real story of Crystal Lee Sutton, who was one of three generations of her family to work at J.P. Stevens & Company mills in Burlington, North Carolina, and went on to become a celebrated ACTWU organizer. Often emotionally raw and unvarnished, Norma Rae’s struggle to build solidarity at the plant is both personal and political as she navigates the intersections of race, class, and gender, and bravely stands up for what she believes is right. The film culminates with the union election, delivering one of the most iconic and electrifying scenes of 1970s American working-class cinema.
Wednesday March 25th – Doors: 6:45pm
Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor St W, Toronto
Free/PWYC

Class Strength in North America Today
2026-03-26 18:30 - 20:00 | WAHC, 51 Stuart Street, Hamilton, ON, L8L 1B5, Canada
Join us for a virtual panel discussion between Jay Youngdahl, Sam Gindin, and Adolph Reed Jr. on contemporary issues of class division and strength in North America.
The trio will discuss: where do divisions in the working class come from and who benefits from them? How can solidarity be built between workers across sectors today?
This panel activates Jay Youngdahl’s solo exhibition, I Don’t Want Your Millions (Billions), Mister, on at WAHC from February 13 – April 11, 2026.
Zoom link to be sent to registered attendees approximately 1 week before the event.

CUBA Resiste! In Conversation About Cuba Today
2026-04-25 19:00 - 21:00 | College United Church, 502 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, Canada
Cuba is facing deepening hardship with blackouts, and critical shortages of food, fuel, and medicine. As the crisis intensifies, communities worldwide are coming together in solidarity.
Join us for an evening of dialogue, learning, and collective action as we unpack what is happening in Cuba today beyond the headlines.
All proceeds from the evening to go toward sending vital equipment, food, and supplies to Cuba.
Panelists:

Keith Bolender is the author of several books and a freelance journalist living in Toronto who has written extensively on Cuban matters for a variety of North American publications. He is also a lecturer on American foreign policy and the Cuban Revolution.
Sharmini Peries is a journalist and the Co-Founder of The Analysis News as well as former Senior Editor and Co-Founder of The Real News Network. Peries was International Economic Development and Trade Adviser to the President of Venezuela, and has served as the executive director of The Commission on Systemic Racism in the Criminal Justice System; International Freedom of Expression Exchange, and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.
Nicolas Avendaño Ruiz is a member of the Canadian Cuban Friendship Association Toronto executive committee (CCFA Toronto). Member of the steering committee of the Venezuela Solidarity Coalition (VSC). Member of the Young Communist League – Ligue de la jeunesse communists (YCL-LJC Canada).

This event is being organized by: Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association Toronto, Casa Salvador Allende Toronto, Grupo Guillermo Gonzalez, Socialist Project.

Confronting the Far-Right
2026-04-27 18:30 - 21:00 | College United Church, 502 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, Canada
The Leo Panitch School is pleased to present “Confronting the Far-Right: Lessons from Italy and Spain.” We are honoured to welcome Clara Serra and Salvatore Prinzi to Toronto to lead us in a discussion of this vital topic. Clara and Salvatore are both activists, authors, and philosophers, experienced in movements confronting the rise of the far-right in Spain and Italy, respectively.
How did the rise of the contemporary far-right come about in Southern Europe? How are left and anti-fascist movements responding to this? What lessons can the socialist left in Canada take from the experiences of Italy and Spain?
The Spanish and Italian movements against the right have taken a number of expected as well as more experimental forms. Clara and Salvatore will lead us in a discussion of what they’ve witnessed and participated in. This will range from the effects of the decline of the traditional social democratic parties, to the role of mutual aid, to new and creative forms of community activation. They will also discuss the role of feminism in fighting the growth of the far-right, and how socialist feminism becoming a hegemonic political ideal may be the key to turning young men away from fascism.
About the speakers:

Clara Serra is a philosopher and feminist from Madrid. In 2013, she was a representative of Podemos in the Madrid Assembly until 2019. She is a member of the feminist network Alianzas Rebeldes. Clara has written on a number topics, including feminist strategy, politics, and most recently, consent.
Salvatore Prinzi was one of the founders of Ex OPG in 2015 and later Potere al Popolo. He has published works on numerous topics, including social class, Italian politics, and fascism. He is currently conducting new work around the issue of the minimum wage in Italy.

This event is being organized by the Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education, with support from the Socialist Project and the Global Labour Research Centre.
When: Monday 27 April – doors open: 6:30pm, talk starts 7pm, social to follow
Where: College Street United Church – 502 Bathurst Street, Toronto ON
How: Advance registration required. Free – donations accepted with gratitude.

Mayworks Festival
2026-05-01 18:30 - 2026-05-30 21:00
Featuring…
Live Music:
Parallel Play Collective, whose music is a call to action and solidarity, drawing inspiration from the revolutionary struggles of the Filipino people
Panel Discussion:
Raw materials, goods, capital, and workers themselves are part of a network of global supply chains where each link is integral to the system of wealth distribution shaping our living and working conditions.
This panel discussion invites labour activists and organizers to address the movement of financial assets, cargo and labour, and the power we have to disrupt those supply chains. Speakers include Jody Chan (No Arms in the Arts), Mostafa Heneway (Immigrant Rights Network), Radhika Desai (Geopolitical Economy Research Group), moderated by Moe Alqasem (Labour for Palestine).
Date/Time: Friday May 1, 2026, 6:30–9:00pm (doors open at 6pm)
Location: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St, Toronto

FilmSocial Presents: Bread and Roses
2026-05-01 19:00 - 21:00 | College United Church, 502 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is very pleased to present Bread and Roses (2000) as the next film in the FilmSocial series of socialist film screenings. This edition of FilmSocial is extra special as we celebrate with a May Day party following the film!
In Los Angeles, Mexican immigrant Maya (Pilar Padilla) finds work as a janitor through her sister, Rosa (Elpidia Carrillo). However, conditions at their non-union cleaning company are grim. After experiencing management abuse directed at herself and her fellow workers, Maya is convinced by union organizer Sam Shapiro (Adrien Brody), to get involved in the campaign for safe working conditions, higher wages, and dignity at her workplace. What follows leads to tension and confrontation, not only between workers and the company, but between Maya and her own family.
Directed by well know socialist filmmaker, Ken Loach, Bread and Roses is based on the real-life Justice for Janitors campaign, organized by the Service Employees’ International Union (SEIU). The campaign was a pivotal moment in the fight for improved working conditions for some of the most precarious workers in the United States and Canada. As portrayed in the film, the campaign went beyond traditional business union methods, utilizing militant direct actions and deep community-based organizing in order to win workers’ demands.

A Worker is a Worker — May Day Forum
2026-05-01 19:00 - 2026-05-02 18:00
To mark International Workers’ Day, we gather across New Brunswick to affirm a simple truth: a worker is a worker, no matter where we come from or what immigration status we hold.
At a time when racism, xenophobia, and anti-migrant policies are being used to divide workers, these May Day forums will bring together migrant justice organizers from Minneapolis and New Brunswick and you to name divide-and-rule strategies and organize against them.
Instead of addressing rising rents, low wages, crumbling public services, and deepening inequality, politicians are turning to deportation, enforcement, and Trump-style immigration policies like Bill C-12. Migrants are being scapegoated so that the people most responsible for this crisis can escape accountability. We refuse that divide.
Featuring Aizar Cabrera from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, who will speak about the ongoing fight for survival in Minneapolis and how migrant communities are building solidarity in the face of escalating attacks.

Friday, May 1, 2026, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Viscount Kitchen – Pinoy Fiesta, 435 King St., Fredericton
Saturday, May 2, 2026, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Venue/location: TBD, Moncton

Japanese Left Today
2026-05-04 15:30 - 17:30
The Japanese Left Today and the Return to Marx’s Capital
The world is facing war, economic shocks, deep inequalities, and ecological crises; these challenges affect us all. Join Kazuo Shii for a compelling discussion on why our society’s dominant systems need a profound transformation, and discover why Marx’s Capital is more relevant now than ever.
Kazuo Shii is the chairman of the Japanese Communist Party and served as its secretary-general for over twenty years. A member of the Japanese parliament from 1993 to 2026, he has been one of the leading figures of the Japanese left for many decades and continues to influence contemporary political discourse. The author of numerous books, his most recent publications include Communism and Freedom (2024), Das Kapital is Interesting Now (2025), and Free Time and “The Capital” (2026).
May 4, 2026, 15:30 – 17:00
802 South Ross Building, York University, Toronto
Refreshments will be served at 17:00

Capitalism Can't Be Fixed
2026-05-06 18:30 - 2026-05-13 20:30
Every Wednesday at 6:30pm, March 25 to May 13, 2026.
Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed
Activism and Mental Health with Dr. James Deutsch.

Higher Education Organizing Meeting
2026-05-07 18:30 - 20:30 | College United Church, 502 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, Canada
The Higher Education Working Group of the Socialist Project invites you to join us for our next organizing meeting!
The Ford government’s assault on higher education doesn’t stop at workers. The recently announced OSAP cuts are a direct attack on low-income and working-class students. These cuts further marketize education, making a naked assertion that the only factors students should consider in their studies are the needs of potential future employers. We must defend public education for the public good.
The next Higher Education Labour Working Group meeting will focus on student struggle and student-worker alliances. We’ll hear from student speakers and explore how higher education workers can meaningfully support student organizing. We’ll discuss how workers can help students resisting OSAP cuts, how student issues can be brought into bargaining demands, and how we can better support student-worker unionization efforts.
Where: College Street United Church, 502 Bathurst Street, Toronto
When: May 7th – Refreshments at 6:30pm, meeting start at 7:00pm
How: Registration required – Register here
If you work at a college, university, or related workplace, we want to see you there! We’re once again asking everyone in attendance to send this invitation along to colleagues and make sure to bring at least one along with you to the meeting!

Organizing 101
2026-05-23 09:00 - 2026-05-24 17:00
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: Saturday and Sunday, May 23 – 24
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.
To offset some of the costs associated with this training, we encourage participants to pay a registration fee of $15. No worker will be turned away for financial hardship, so please contact us if you can’t make this contribution.
The training is being held by the IWW, the SP is happy to help promote it.

Education Under Siege
2026-05-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1C7, Canada
Ontario’s higher education sector is at a breaking point. From the systematic marketization of colleges and universities to the sustained attack on labour rights, the provincial government’s strategy is clear: treat education as a commodity rather than a social good.
Join us for a political discussion as we analyze the Ford government’s maneuvers—including the devastating shift from OSAP grants to loans, the manufactured “international student crisis,” and the broader austerity agenda threatening social equality.
We will explore strategies for a labour and community-led response, highlighting ongoing student and labour fightbacks and providing a direct opportunity for attendees to plug into the organizing work necessary to defend, expand, and decommodify our public institutions.
This event is open to all, especially people who work or study at a college or university. The discussion is a part of the ongoing Higher Education Workers’ campaign of the Socialist Project. If you work at a higher education institution, we’d love to get you involved in the campaign!
This event is being supported by the Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education as a part of its ongoing series of educational discussions on current labour and political struggles.
