Right now there are no American women who were of reproductive age prior to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Yet reproductive rights in the US have never been more threatened. 2011 marked the passage of the most state-level restrictive abortion laws ever. 2012 saw the
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wmtc: are we seeing the beginning of global people’s revolution?
“There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear…” This week, I attended a talk put on by the International Socialists, featuring an organizer with OUR Walmart, by Skype from Texas, and a Toronto-based union activist. Both speakers were terrific and so inspiring, but although I took copious notes,
Continue readingwmtc: workers doing it for themselves: fighting the austerity agenda in north america
I’m re-running this, which I wrote for Socialist Worker Canada (now at a temporary site while a new website is being completed). If you are part of this struggle – or if you want to be part of it – and live in the GTA, please join us tomorrow night
Continue readingwmtc: why you cannot save your way to a comfortable retirement
I was very pleased to see this run in the New York Times. I guess it was safe because the writer didn’t actually use the word socialism. But this Op-Ed is all about the dead-end of capitalism, choking the life out of the working person, and more recently, the middle
Continue readingwmtc: a people’s history of the war of 1812
At last, this is the fourth post of the talks I attended in November and December. Allan and I organized this in Mississauga, through the Mississauga “twig” of the IS. The talk was given by our friend and comrade John Bell. The other recent talks: noah richler, u.s. war resisters,
Continue readingwmtc: unrelenting austerity and the promise of self-reliance: a blog from greece
A friend sent me a link to this blog, written by a man from the UK, a Socialist Workers Party activist, now retired and living on the Greek island of Samos. It’s a picture from of life under extreme austerity – how people are suffering, but also how they are
Continue readingwmtc: more signs of life in the labour movement: non-union workers rising
Of all the reasons for hope that we’ve seen in recent times – Wisconsin, the Occupy Movement, the Quebec students’ actions, the Chicago teachers’ strike – this trend gives me the most joy and the most hope. Here are three stories of non-unionized workers organizing themselves to change conditions in
Continue readingwmtc: from greece to chicago to toronto, workers fighting back against austerity
Working my way backwards, this the second of four talks I attended that I’ll be reporting on. * * * * In November, I heard Nikos Loudos of the Socialist Workers Party in Greece (by Skype) and Canadian activist and organizer Carolyn Egan speak about the recent general strike in
Continue readingwmtc: greenwald on "both sides are wrong", hedges on the world as gaza
There are always at least two sides to every story. Long ago, in the American West, some pioneers and cowboys were killed by “Indians”. More recently, Iraqi “insurgents” have killed US soldiers. When I was growing up, Vietnamese “guerillas” – I believe…
Continue readingwmtc: why is "entitled" a dirty word? some thoughts on what we are all entitled to.
When did “entitled” become a dirty word? Why do we hear “entitled” being used as catch-all slur, a derogatory description to be thrown at progressive people working for change? And why should we permit this word to retain such a heavily negative connotation? Here are some people I have seen
Continue readingwmtc: rtod: a town without poverty. it happened in canada.
Revolutionary thought of the day: Initially, the Mincome program was conceived as a labour market experiment. The government wanted to know what would happen if everybody in town received a guaranteed income, and specifically, they wanted to know whether people would still work. It turns out they did. Only two
Continue readingwmtc: the whole world is watching: veterans to return medals in nato/poverty protests this weekend
All eyes will be on Chicago this weekend, as thousands of protesters from all over North American converge on the the NATO summit. The symbolism could not be more trenchant, as Chicago was the scene of protests and rebellion against an earlier US war, and famously out-of-control police violence. Iraq
Continue readingwmtc: healthy eating costs more. fact or fiction?
Conventional wisdom has it that healthy foods cost more than junk food, that buying and preparing nutritious food is more expensive than eating processed food. How many people bemoan the supposed fact that low-income people cannot afford to eat healthfully: “When carrots are less expensive than chips, then everyone will
Continue readingwmtc: canadian doctors protest cuts to refugee health care
Bravo to the hundreds of Canadian family doctors who protested the dismantling of the refugee health care system! There was a demonstration in Ottawa, occupations of MP’s offices in Winnipeg and Toronto, and press conferences in other cities. “I just cannot understand how my government can take the most vulnerable
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: racism, economic recovery (not), canada’s vietnam
This is the last installment of my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. This post is less complete than the preceding Marxism 2011 posts. They are Allan’s notes from the sessions I chaired, and two sessions he attended without me. Apparently Allan is not
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: keynes vs. marx: can capitalism be reformed?
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * I was especially interested in this talk, as for much of my life I would have considered myself a reformist in the Keynes mode. I slowly learned that reform can never
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: prospects for the left under a harper majority
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * This was just weeks after the 2011 election, and is very interesting to think about at the one-year mark of Harper’s majority. Given what we know now – Jack Layton’s death,
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: what would a socialist society look like?
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * These notes are sketchier and rougher than the previous posts, as the talk was very informal. What Would a Socialist Society Look Like?Kim KerridgeMay 28, 2011 This question is both broad
Continue readingwmtc: what are people supposed to do? or, why we need socialism
As I read news stories, read blogs, skim headlines, one question keeps coming to my mind, over and over. What are people supposed to do? Income insecurity Wages have been slashed or have been stagnant for years. Corporations continue to eliminate jobs, forcing the survivors to work much harder for
Continue readingwmtc: ontarians, what are you doing this saturday? come to queen’s park to demand a fair budget
When Dalton McGuinty appointed a banker to assess the province’s budget priorities, he got exactly what he expected: a recommendation to cut jobs and shred public services, while leaving corporate tax cuts intact. The proposed budget cuts will affect every aspect of our lives: health care, child care, education, pensions.
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