CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES

#PaidSickDaysNow

Before it’s too late: Permanent paid sick days for all

Over half of workers in Canada have no paid sick days. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, no government in Canada has brought in paid sick days. This is putting workers and public health at risk.

Send a letter: workers need 7 permanent paid sick days and an additional 14 paid sick days during public health emergencies.

decentworkandhealth.org

Mayworks 21

When: May 5 – 16

Mayworks actively engages in a social dialogue that reimagines and represents economic and environmental justice. From the organizing efforts of factory workers at Amazon to the hidden connections between the extractive industries and our cultural institutions, artists and organizers share their insights and reaffirm the possibilities of collective action. The works of this year’s festival emerge in the middle of a global pandemic that has further exposed the violence of racialized capitalism.

We invite you to check out our website or download the program to start planning ahead for any of our events that catch your eye or your interest. Please keep in mind that some of our online encounters require registration.

– Sunday May 9 – 16: “Sorry We Missed You” (2019), by Ken Loach

mayworks.ca

In the Muse’s Voice

When: Thursday May 6th, 7pm

Two award-winning poets, Lisa Richter and Ruth Panofsky, will read from their recent books and engage in conversation about feminist poetics, the writer’s craft, Jewish identity, the rewards and challenges of writing “in persona” and resilience. The event will consist of two readings, followed by a conversation between the two authors and audience Q&A.

Hosted by the United Jewish People’s Order, a secular, Jewish social justice organization that welcomes people across culture, language, gender identity, sexual orientation and beliefs. Rachel Epstein, UJPO’s Executive Director, will moderate.

Facebook

Pandemic, protest and policing

When: May 8th at 2pm EDT

Only a year ago, politicians were falling over themselves applauding healthcare and other essential workers for the risks they take doing their work. When these same workers stand up for measures that would provide decent and safe working conditions and effective Covid policies, they are attacked by employers and governments who continue to put people’s lives at risk. Essential workers have been at the forefront of fighting for more effective and more just policies to tackle the pandemic, including fighting for paid sick days for workers with Covid symptoms.

Join us for this panel discussion with:
– Karen Reissman, a healthcare worker in Manchester fined £10,000 for leading a safe outdoor protest against an insulting pay offer;
– Kostas Katarachias, a doctor and president of the workers union at Agios Savvas cancer hospital in Athens, who was sacked for union activity and recently won reinstatement after a mass campaign;
– Sung-lim Kang, a public health worker and socialist in Toronto.

socialist.ca | zoom.us

VOW Peace Awards

When: May 8th, 7pm

Join us in recognition of outstanding women in Canada who are working to make the world a better place. The 2021 Peace Awards are presented by the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, in the following categories:

1. The Muriel Duckworth Award for Peace Activism
2. The Shirley Farlinger Award for Peace Writings
3. The Anne Goodman Award for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace/Peace Education
4. The Kim Phúc Award for Youth Peace Leadership (age ~18-30)
5. The Ursula Franklin Award of Excellence

zoom.us

The Cost of Free Shipping

When: Tuesday, May 11th, 5:30pm

The Cost of Free Shipping shows how Amazon represents a fundamental shift in global capitalism that we need to counter.

Amazon is the most powerful corporation on the planet and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, has become the richest person in history, and one of the few people to profit from a global pandemic. Its dominance has reshaped the global economy itself: we live in the age of Amazon Capitalism.

Facebook event

Canada’s Toxic Legacy

When: Tuesday May 11th, 7pm

Pan American Silver and Mining Billionaire Ross Beaty in Latin America

Join us for a virtual forum on Tuesday, May 11, to hear from frontline communities and organizations in Latin America who have lived or observed the arrogant disregard of peoples’ rights, the lasting environmental disasters, and the forced displacement of communities to make way for mining projects backed by Ross Beaty, Vancouver-based Pan American Silver’s founder and outgoing chairman.

With participation from Cooperacción, Peru; Peaceful Resistance to Mining in Chubut, Argentina; Xinka Parliament of Guatemala; La Colorada, Zacatecas, Mexico; Carrizalillo, Guerrero, México; Mexican Network of Mining Affected People (REMA); Shuar Arutam People (PSHA), Ecuador; Community member from Aurizona, Brazil.

eventbrite.com

Hassan Diab news conference

When: Wednesday, May 12th, 10:30am

France’s Court of Appeal ruled in January that Hassan Diab must stand trial in connection to the Paris bombing in 1980. After being imprisoned for three years, he was released when the investigating judge found strong evidence of innocence. But France wants a scapegoat. News conference to provide legal analysis of the Appeal Court ruling, latest updates on the case and the support committee’s plan to put end to France’s 12-years of legal persecution.

Facebook event

When We Stood and Fought

When: Thursday May 13th, 7pm

Quebec City 2001 – The People’s Summit

The Second People’s Summit of the Americas took place from 17-21 April, 2001 in Quebec City. Activists from all over Canada – and the world (60,000 or more) went to Quebec City and voiced their opposition to the “Summit of the Americas”.

Toronto was well-represented and the Toronto Workers’ History Project (TWHP) is proud to present five such activists in discussion about their roles in that historic Summit.

Winnie Ng (Facilitator), Judy Rebick, Chris Ramsaroop, Michelle Robidoux and Kim Fry.

Facebook event

Making a Democratic Socialism for the 21st Century

Azadeh Reisdana interviews Sam Gindin on the recent growth of democratic socialism in developing countries and as an ideology which attracts a new younger generation of socialists. They also discuss the expansion of democratic socialism to not only a political theory but also as an economic application. This was recorded online during the Covid lockdown, March 2021.

Source: LeftStreamed

Delivery Workers Rising Up Against Exploitation

By Taroa Zuñiga Silva

On February 22, 2019, at 6 p.m., a car crashed into Servio Hernández’s motorcycle. Hernández, a Venezuelan migrant in Chile, was hit while he was in the middle of making a delivery for PedidosYa, a branch of the German multinational company Delivery Hero. When Hernández arrived at the hospital, the first thing he did was ask the medical staff to let his supervisor know about the accident. “There is nothing we can do for him,” the supervisor told the doctor. The supervisor turned off his phone and blocked Hernández from being able to access the PedidosYa app.

Source: The Bullet No. 2363

This May Day Even the Designation ‘Workers’ is Under Threat

By Labour Committee SP

Whenever it seems that corporations have gone as far as they can in expressing their disdain for workers and any degree of worker autonomy, they manage to come up with something still more outrageous. As mind-boggling as it may seem, a group of high-tech companies now want to rob workers of even their identities as workers. The latest threat involves the ride-hailing company Uber. Uber is in the midst of an international campaign – enthusiastically and richly supported by the likes of Lyft, DoorDash and Amazon – to legally classify those who they hire and fire, whose working conditions they set and monitor, and whose pay they determine, as not really workers but dependent contractors.

Source: The Bullet No. 2364

India’s Pandemic Disaster: The Responsibility of Modi and the BJP

By Sonali Kolhatkar

India has become the new global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with daily infections surpassing 300,000 per day (390,000 per day as of May 1st) and the official death toll – likely a massive underestimate – over a quarter of a million people. Hospitals are being overrun with patients, and the crisis is exacerbated by a devastating shortage of oxygen. The Indian judiciary has gone as far as threatening capital punishment for anyone caught trying to divert shipments of oxygen from around the country to affected areas. There have been dozens of deaths documented directly tied to a lack of oxygen.

Source: The Bullet No. 2365

Understanding Development in a Global Value Chain World

By Benjamin Selwyn and Dara Leyden

The recent period of globalization – following the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the integration of China into the world economy – is in essence the period of global value chains (GVCs). From low to high-tech, basic consumer goods to heavy capital equipment, food to services, goods are now produced across many countries, integrated through GVCs. The big question in development studies is whether this globalized reconfiguration of production is contributing to, or detracting from, real human development?

Source: The Bullet No. 2366