Public sector pensions and the private to public pivot
Demonstration by public sector workers in Toronto, 1988. Photo by Ron Bull/Toronto Star. The following is an excerpt from Invested in Crisis: Public Sector Pensions Against the Future by...
Economic Crisis, Labour
Canada’s job market is worse than you think
Photo by Brenda Gottsabend/Flickr The Canadian government’s response to US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats must also contend with the growing weakness of our labour market. A we...
Setting the record straight on Canada’s ‘productivity crisis’
Economists like to fashion themselves as the “adults in the room.” However, their notion that incomes are determined by productivity is incredibly naïve, writes D.T. Cochrane. Photo courtesy Archives of…
Harry Glasbeek on how the law keeps workers’ aspirations firmly in check
Cartoon of American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, 1900. Illustration by Udo J. Keppler. Image courtesy Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons. The following is an excerpt from Law at Work: The Coercion and…
The myth of the ‘nanny state’
Margaret Thatcher served as British prime minister from 1979 to 1990. Photo by Tim Roney. Among many stories related to austerity and social abandonment that came across my news feed…
Wages did not cause Canada’s inflation crisis
Political cartoon published July 7, 1894 by the Chicago Labor newspaper showing the condition of the labouring man at the Pullman Company. The employee is being squeezed by Pullman between…
Four-day work week: Reformist or revolutionary?
Office workers in the early 1980s. Photo courtesy the Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums/Flickr. The British Columbia Green Party is the closest thing to a left-wing political party (at…
Imperialism is inscribed in the very DNA of capitalism
Labourers at a garment factory in Bac Giang province, Vietnam, 2015. Photo by Nguyen Huy Kham. Contemporary imperialism can be a difficult concept to grasp. Part of this is undoubtedly…
Basic Income: Progressive Dreams Meet Neoliberal Realities
Photo by Eli Christman Up until now, the concept of Basic Income (BI) has enjoyed a greater history of being proposed than of being implemented. We may well be approaching…
Olympics, debt and repression
Vancouver: Protest to “Take Back Our City” on the afternoon of the Olympics opening ceremony, February 12, 2010. Photo by Sally T. Buck; posted on Flickr. Andrew Zimbalist is professor…
A practical solution to an urgent need
This piece was originally published in Monthly Review and republished here with the author’s permission. This old airport’s got me down—it’s no earthly good to me, ‘cause I’m stuck here…