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Canada’s PM Trudeau: Disaster In Office, Disaster On Departure

January 25, 2025 Radhika Desai, Geopolitical Economy. , , ,
The world regards Canada as nice and boring—nothing exciting happens there—but over the last couple of months, things have been very different. On the one hand, within a week or two of being elected president-elect, Trump started issuing threats against Canada: threats about tariffs, threats about undertaking all sorts of measures because Canada was not helping reduce illegal immigration into the U.S., and of course, the threat about making Canada the 51st state, which he issued first by calling Prime Minister Trudeau “Governor Trudeau.” On the other hand, we have seen that Prime Minister Trudeau has resigned in the last two weeks.

Hyperimperialism, The Fall Of Syria And Capitalist Gangsters

January 21, 2025 Mnar Adley, MintPress News. , , , , , , , , , , ,
As 2025 begins, California is on fire. And it feels like much of the rest of the world is burning, too. From the slaughter in the Middle East to a new Cold War brewing in Asia, everywhere we look is filled with uncertainty. At home, the California wildfires have exposed much of the true face of capitalism. From prison laborers risking their lives for pennies by fighting the blazes to massive price hikes for rents in Southern California, the U.S. is crumbling. Yet externally, America is as aggressive as ever. Only last month, it helped force through a coup against the Assad government in Syria, and Trump has made noises about using force against Panama, Greenland, and has threatened Canada, Cuba, Venezuela and other nations in the Global South.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Resigns

January 7, 2025 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
On January 6, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation. “I care deeply about this country and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interests of Canadians. And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority parliament in Canadian history,” Trudeau said as he resigned after nine years as prime minister and 11 years as the leader of the Liberal Party. Trudeau was facing a mounting cost of living crisis, dire opinion polls, and a tariff threat by the United States.

2024: Workers Organized, Bosses Grew Nervous

January 5, 2025 Tom Sandborn, Rabble.CA. , , ,
If in the 19th century Marx and Engels could prematurely proclaim that Communist revolution was a “spectre haunting Europe,” in 2024 the business class of North America and its compliant mainstream press were growing increasingly nervous about a different but related spectre, a working class that was showing signs of increased and well organized militance. Strikes were more common and workers, still remembering the hypocritical Covid-era praise for them as heroes and the post-pandemic collapse into attempts to restore business as usual exploitation, are pissed off, and their anger has been expressed with increased levels of organizing and work stoppages.

Why Be A Doormat?

January 5, 2025 Owen Schalk, Canadian Dimension. , , ,
US President-elect Donald Trump recently referred to Canada as the “51st State” and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as its “governor.” While on one level, such ridiculous statements are part and parcel of Trump’s political persona, they reveal something deeper about the role that Canada occupies in the American economy and political imagination. This is an issue that the Canadian Marxist historian Stanley B. Ryerson explored in a pamphlet entitled “Why Be a Doormat?” published by the Labor-Progressive Party in 1948. “Canadians need complete and permanent union with the US… Since Canada has shown that she cannot fiscally operate in today’s world, and since Britain is fiscally impotent, it is up to the US to act.”

Montreal Port Workers Have One Last Chance To Reach A Deal

December 21, 2024 Liam O'Toole, Labor Notes. , , , ,
At the Port of Montréal, nearly 1,200 longshore workers have been ordered into binding arbitration by the Canadian government following a 10-day lockout. There’s still one final chance to reach a consensual agreement. The Syndicat des Débardeurs (Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375) and the Maritime Employers Association have entered a 90-day period of mediation. During this period, they are to refrain from making any public statements. If the mediated negotiations fail, a new contract will be imposed by the federal government. Longshore workers at the port have been working without a contract since December 31, 2023. Their biggest concerns are scheduling, workplace rules, and forced overtime.

Forcing Postal Workers Back To Work Misuse Of Labour Code

December 20, 2024 Gabriela Calugay-Casuga, Rabble.ca. , , , ,
Canada Post workers have been on strike for five weeks. On Tuesday morning, legal strike action ended after a decision from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) which said operations were to resume.  On Friday, labour minister Steve MacKinnon asked CIRB to investigate whether the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post were likely to reach a deal before the end of 2024. The Board found an agreement before the end of the year was unlikely and ordered postal workers back on the job. 

Teamsters: Government Should Stay Out Of The Bargaining Process

December 17, 2024 Bill Stephens, Trains. , , , , , , ,
Toronto – Teamsters Canada union leaders are urging federal officials in Ottawa to stay out of the collective bargaining process and back railway workers’ right to strike. “The transportation industry’s most powerful chief executives have developed a way to sidestep union negotiations,” Francois Laporte, national president of Teamsters Canada, and Paul Boucher, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, wrote in an op-ed in Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper this week. “Here’s their playbook, as we see it: Make unreasonable demands, accuse unions of being unreasonable for refusing to accept them, instigate job action, lock workers out to disrupt supply chains, and use the resulting outcry to press Ottawa to impose binding arbitration. We believe this to be bad faith bargaining.

The Conflicted Transformation Of CAW-Unifor, A Canadian Union

December 13, 2024 Herman Rosenfeld, The Bullet. , , ,
Recent commentaries on the political trajectory of the major private sector union in Canada, CAW-Unifor, have often had a rather simplistic and problematic perspective. That the CAW-Unifor (the latter being the new name and re-foundation of the union in 2013) drifted from a left, struggle-oriented approach, summarized in the slogan “Fighting back makes a difference,” toward a more collaborative centrist and Gomperist political approach, as the union distanced itself and ultimately moved away from the New Democratic Party (NDP).

Over A Hundred Jewish Canadians Take Over Parliamentary Building

December 3, 2024 David Swanson, World Beyond War. , , , , , ,
Ottawa, ON – As catastrophic levels of hunger grip Israeli-occupied Gaza, over a hundred Jewish Canadians and allied supporters of Palestinian liberation have taken over a Parliament Hill building in Ottawa, blocking Members of Parliament from reaching their offices. Their message is clear: Canada cannot continue business as usual with Israel when business as usual means being complicit in a genocide. Canada must end its active participation in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people by halting all arms exports to Israel—including components funneled through U.S. loopholes—and stopping all arms imports from Israel.

How Can US And Mexican Workers Build Cross-Border Solidarity?

December 3, 2024 Henry Salazar and David Bacon, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed in 1993, the economies of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico have become increasingly integrated. Workers in all three countries have suffered as corporations have used trade rules to maximize profits, push down wages and benefits, and manage the flow of people displaced by these rules. Unions in all three countries have faced a basic question: Can they win the battles they face today without joining forces? That question has only become more urgent under the agreement that replaced NAFTA, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA, or T-MEC in Spanish). In February 2024 the UCLA Labor Center, the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation brought together union and workplace activists from the three countries to talk about labor solidarity in their industries.

China And Mexico Stand Firm In The Face Of Trump’s Tariff Threats

November 29, 2024 Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , , ,
Several days ago, the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, announced his intention to impose a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian products until the arrival of migrants and drugs, especially fentanyl, allegedly from Mexico and Canada is reduced. In a post on his social network Truth Social, the incoming far-right president reaffirmed his xenophobic positions on immigration and blamed Mexico, China, and Canada for the appearance of fentanyl in the country. “As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before.

Indigenous-Led Environmental Planning: A Blueprint For Equity

November 27, 2024 Somia Sadiq and Desiree Theriault, Next City. , , ,
We gather around the dinner table as one of the participants starts a smudge ceremony. Among us are three women who transitioned out of the sex trade more than 20 years ago. They carry the deep scars of their pasts, including Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which shapes how they navigate our meetings. They only speak with those they trust. Their triggers — such as needing to sit where they can see everything — are reminders of how trauma shapes their lives. We know these conversations will touch on their past, but only at a pace they set. To rush would mean losing their trust.

Canada’s Postal Strikers Refuse To Throw New Hires Under The Bus

November 24, 2024 Danielle Smith, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Roughly 55,000 postal workers in Canada are on strike, fighting to raise their wages, protect their work, and shape the future of Canada Post. They’ve been in negotiations since November 2023, after agreeing to a two-year contract extension in 2021 due to Covid. “We definitely don’t want our jobs to become a race to the bottom,” said Tracey Langille, president of Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 548 in Hamilton, Ontario. “We want solid jobs, living wages, decent benefits, and the ability to retire with dignity as well.”

The Case For A ‘Bold Idea’ To End The Era Of Coal, Oil And Gas

November 22, 2024 Matthew Green, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
Could the world negotiate a wind-down of the fossil fuel industry — just as Cold War adversaries once agreed to limit their stockpiles of nuclear weapons? In an interview for the Climate Consciousness Summit 2024, Tzeporah Berman, founder and chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative said a growing wave of support for the proposal — which has been endorsed by more than 3,000 scientists, 121 cities and sub-national governments, and 14 nations — could ultimately make new fossil fuel projects unacceptable, even in the United States, the world’s biggest producer of oil and gas.
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