Presently in Ontario the Conservative governemnt has used “the nuclear option” to take away rights from workers. Not going to lie: it’s really bad, like Canadian Charter of Rights are no longer relveant bad. The union the government is picking on is primarily made up of women and many of
Continue readingTag: strike.
Things Are Good: Today Scholars go on Strike to Bring Attention to Racial Injustices
The recent strike by NBA and WNBA players has shown that reactionary and direct labour action can make meaningful change beyond just the workplace. In the WNBA & NBA, the workers (players) refused to play in protest of police bracingly killing non-white people, the strike resulted in basketball arenas being
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Faces of the Global Climate Strike Movement
Climate change can’t be ignored anymore. Every year we see an increase in deaths directly related to climate change from flooding to heat waves. Young people are inheriting a planet that is facing mass extinction due to the damage previous generations have done to the planet and the “kids” these
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Cue the crickets: Where are the media warnings Canada Post bosses are ‘holding the country to ransom’?
PHOTOS: Locked out postal workers in a past dispute in Halifax (HalifaxMediaCoop.ca photo). Below: St. Albert resident’s illegal “Restore door to door” sign (CBC photo), Controversial Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra, CUPW President Mike Palecek, an…
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Working class disarmed, Canadian redux
Looking at the prevalence of strikes in the US over the past six decades, Doug Henwood writes, Second Amendment fetishism aside, there’s an old saying that the working class’s ultimate weapon is withholding labor through slowdowns and strikes. By that measure, the U.S. working class has been effectively disarmed since
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Profits Before People: Richmond Ikea Lockout Enters Day 17
Generating enough media spin to rival a jet engine at take off, the management and PR folks at Ikea Canada want you to believe that their poor little corporation is being held hostage by greedy, soulless union workers in Richmond. Woe. Pity poor Ikea. It’s tough being a multi-national
Continue readingTrashy's World: A plea to the OCDSB…
… even if the teacher’s action tomorrow is declared illegal, do NOT reverse yesterday’s decision to close all elementary schools. And here is why: Student safety – if told to go to work as usual or face consequences, many teachers will NOT and there is no way to anticipate how many, where
Continue readingTrashy's World: To all those decrying…
… the ONE day walkout by elementary teachers today. Suck it up. This is democracy in action, regardless of whether or not you believe that teachers (or anyone else for that matter) should have the right to strike. Under the current law, they DO have that right. This. Is. A.
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Molly’sBlog 2012-07-16 11:28:00
CANADIAN LABOUR: WILDCAT STRIKERS DEFY UNION AND COMPANY IN NEWFOUNDLAND: Up to 1,000 workers have gathered near the road to Vale’s Long Harbour construction site in eastern Newfoundland this morning, as a wildcat labour dispute enters day five.Some employees have turned around, and many have joined in the protest,
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: Breaking the law to protect future generations
As I’m sure most of you know, Montreal now has a bylaw banning masks at protests. Mayor Gérald Tremblay asks, “When a cause is just, why is it necessary to hide behind a mask?” When asked about protestors who use masks to protect themselves from teargas, a lawyer representing the police said that teargas is only used at protests that have been declared illegal. There are, of course, reasons other than hiding your identity and protecting yourself from teargas to wear a mask and one of those reasons is being adorable.
Hey Charest! You’re a big LOSER!
My son Eliot breaking the law at yesterday’s demonstration.
Okay, so teargas is only used at protests that have been declared illegal, but when is a protest declared illegal? According to Quebec’s new loi 78, if there are 50 or more people and the police did not receive notice in writing with a map of the route eight hours in advance, the protest is illegal. Loi 78 does not comply with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and we cannot sit back silently while it is enforced. We cannot hide inside while terrasses full of innocent bar patrons are attacked by the police, elderly people are penalized for honking in support of protestors, and unarmed protestors are pepper sprayed in the face. This is not the kind of future that I want for that little panda up there, or for the other children in Quebec.
There are many legitimate reasons to oppose the tuition hikes in Quebec that existed even before loi 78 and the voice articulating these reasons should not be silenced. The need to stand up to this special law is urgent. It is not just the students who are impacted by the new restrictions; Jean Charest’s government is punishing Quebec as a whole for the student demonstrations and Quebec is taking notice. Louis Masson, president of the Quebec Bar Association, called the bill “a breach to the fundamental, constitutional rights of the citizens.” The union representing STM bus drivers has denounced loi 78, asking bus drivers to refrain from driving riot police to demonstrations and reminding them that they have had protests in the past which would now be considered illegal under the special law.
If we don’t speak up, we are sending the government the message that we’re okay with laws like this, so stand up and let them know that we’re not; future generations are the ones who will suffer if we are silent. Defy loi 78, join the protests, and show the government that we will not be bullied into following ridiculous laws.
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: Breaking the law to protect future generations
As I’m sure most of you know, Montreal now has a bylaw banning masks at protests. Mayor Gérald Tremblay asks, “When a cause is just, why is it necessary to hide behind a mask?” When asked about protestors who use masks to protect themselves from teargas, a lawyer representing the
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: Breaking the law to protect future generations
As I’m sure most of you know, Montreal now has a bylaw banning masks at protests. Mayor Gérald Tremblay asks, “When a cause is just, why is it necessary to hide behind a mask?” When asked about protestors who use masks to protect themselves from teargas, a lawyer representing the
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Molly’sBlog 2012-04-12 23:04:00
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR/ANARCHOSYNDICALISM: LATEST SPANISH GENERAL STRIKE A HUGE SUCCESS: March 29th saw a one day general strike in Spain that eclipsed previous general strikes in magnitude if one is to judge by the drop in energy consumption, often the best way of estimating the impact of general strikes on the
Continue readingCo2 Art: Should Quebec Students’ Strike for Lower Tuition be Spread to Rest of Canada?
Students in Quebec have been protesting a 75% tuition increase over five years announced by the provincial government. there are two sides to this story In favour of keeping lower tuition 1. many countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Brazil, the Bahamas and Scotland, have free university education, and it is
Continue readingCo2 Art: Should Quebec Students’ Strike for Lower Tuition be Spread to Rest of Canada?
Students in Quebec have been protesting a 75% tuition increase over five years announced by the provincial government.there are two sides to this storyIn favour of keeping lower tuition1. many countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Brazil, the Bahamas and…
Continue readingCo2 Art: Should Quebec Students’ Strike for Lower Tuition be Spread to Rest of Canada?
Students in Quebec have been protesting a 75% tuition increase over five years announced by the provincial government. there are two sides to this story In favour of keeping lower tuition 1. many countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Brazil, the Bahamas and Scotland, have free university education, and it is
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Politics of Conservatives is Big Business
Within two months Canada’s ruling Conservative Party rejected government intervention in one labour dispute and leapt at the chance to intervene in another. In January a manufacturing plant owned by Electro-Motive Diesel, a private company that had received millions in government tax breaks announced it was laying off 450 employees.
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: BC Teachers Hurt The Left & Help The Right
The teachers’ strike in British Columbia this week was bad for the province but good for the BC Liberals. Facing challenges from the NDP on their left and the Conservatives on their right, for the BC Liberals an unpopular labour dispute couldn’t have happened at a better time. Over the
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: BC Teachers On Strike Yet Still Teaching
This week Teachers in BC haven’t even been in the classroom, yet they’ve still managed to teach their students one of the most important things; how to take a stand. Critics will point out at how young people are already too self-assured and that they already have no respect for
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The BC Teachers’ Regressive Labour Strike
In 2010 the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation declared its opposition to the HST because it was a regressive tax, affecting the poor and families more than the wealthy and corporations. Yesterday the BCTF went on strike and while the cost for childcare and sports programs is easily covered by rich
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