CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES

I Stand with Toronto Transit Workers

TTC workers are tirelessly advocating for safer and reliable transit, keeping transit public, and ensuring that jobs aren’t contracted out to third party companies. Their fight for cross-boundary protection aims to keep third party transportation companies from replacing and encroaching on services to Toronto. Toronto’s tax-paying citizens could lose control of public services within the city’s boundary.

The city of Toronto has seen a rise in the cost of living. Food prices have skyrocketed, housing prices are astronomical, and it has become harder and harder for people to make ends meet. TTC transit workers are also looking for improved mental health supports to cope with the increasing stresses and pressures that come with the job. Better benefits for pensioners are important in that it affords our seniors the ability to age with the dignity they deserve. And in this increasingly expensive city, it is imperative that workers are provided with fair and equal compensation that allows them to afford to live in the city in which they work.

Toronto’s transit riders deserve better, safer, reliable public transit and our transit workers deserve a fair contract that values their work.

actionnetwork.org

We Love TTC Workers

When: May 29 to 31
Where: Various locations

Over the next few days ATU 113 members, transit riders, and community allies from TTCriders, Justice for Workers and the Labour Council will be heading out to major transit hubs across the city in a show of support for TTC workers.

By using this opportunity to engage and inform the public, the more likely it is that the TTC will negotiate a fair deal with the ATU 113 members we all depend on.

Pick time/location

The fightback is on to save public healthcare

When: May 30, 12pm
Where: Nathan Phillips Square (south side)

The situation has never been more urgent. The Ford government is dismantling public non-profit health care, closing local public hospitals’ emergency departments and other vital services. They are privatizing hospital care, long-term care, primary care and other services to for-profit corporations.

ofl.ca | Register to get on a bus.

Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture

When: May 30th, 7pm
Where: George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, Metropolitan University, at the Sears Atrium
Tickets: $30

The 2024 Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize is awarded to economist Dr. Isabella Weber for critical research on economic shocks and inflation that equip Canadian progressives with alternatives that push back against anti-democratic policy choices and help to empower workers.

Each year’s prize recipient also delivers the Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture.

eventbrite.ca

Protest at Span bridge over the DVP

When: Fridays, 3-6pm
Where: Span Bridge over the DVP, Spanbridge Rd and Grtenoble Rd

Palestine Solidarity – demonstarting over the Don Valley Parkway since October at Span Bridge, and other bridges overlooking the Don Valley Parkway.

torontoeventsforpalestine.net

Film screening: Tomorrow’s Freedom

When: May 31st, 7pm
Where: Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Ave

Made over the course of 5 years, the documentary film gains intimate access to the family of imprisoned Palestinian political leader, Marwan Barghouthi. Often described as the ‘Palestinian Nelson Mandela,’ Barghouthi is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison. Through a collage of in-depth interviews from the people who know him best, including lawyers, his sons and his wife Fadwa, the immersive documentary is an unflinchingly honest and transformative journey into the saga of Palestinian prisoners, their loved ones, and political representation of Palestinians under ongoing occupation.

eventbrite.ca

Fast to Free the Canadian Captives

When: June 1 to 19

Please pick a day to fast in support of immediately freeing and bringing home 19 arbitrarily detained Canadian Muslim men, women, and children, including the longest-held detainee at 7+ years, Jack Letts. All of them are illegally held without charge in northeastern Syrian jails and prison camps under conditions the United Nations describes as meeting the “threshold for torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.”

Their jailers have called on Canada to come and take these long-suffering detainees home. Yet Canada refuses.

homesnotbombs.blogspot.com

Rally for Injured Workers

When: Saturday, June 1st, 11am
Where: Queen’s Park, 111 Wellesley Street W

Every year on June 1st, injured & ill workers, advocates, and labour activists gather across the province to mark Injured Workers’ Day.

This year, we’ll rally in support of the Ontario Federation of Labour’s proposed Injured Workers’ Bill of Rights.

Let’s make sure basic protections for injured and ill workers are ingrained in law across Ontario.

ofl.ca | Facebook

Gaza Square

When: Every Sunday, 11am to 1pm
Where: 371 Wallace Ave

We’ll be at Gaza square once again this Sunday morning with hot chocolate and coffee, buttons and posters, lawn signs and colourful chalk! Come say hi and meet your fellow neighbours/organizers as we make our presence known and continue to build safety in our community!

Instagram poster

Reaction into Action

When: June 3rd, 12pm

Join us on zoom to learn about our call to action regarding the CDB.
Top 3 reasons to attend:
– Reflections on what happened in the federal budget.
– Updates on the Canada Disability Benefit.
– Next steps.

hubspotpagebuilder.com

Canadian Foreign Policy Hour with Yves Engler

When: Mondays at 6pm

Join author Yves Engler on Mondays for a weekly news roundup and interactive discussion about Canada’s role abroad. This weekly session will delve into the latest developments on subjects ranging from military affairs and Canada’s role in Ukraine to its contribution to Palestinian dispossession, and the exploitation of African resources. Join Yves for a critical take on Canada’s foreign policy. Questions, comments, and criticisms are all welcome.

zoom.us

Arms Embargo Now

When: June 3rd, 7pm

Join Palestinian leaders, labour reps, and student encampment organizers from across the country.

armsembargonow.ca

The Unhoused: Scapegoating Politics and Housing Struggles

By Adolph Reed Jr.

City of Grants Pass v. Johnson punctuates where decades of “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” liberal advocacy have led us, in this instance via accommodating the separation of homelessness as an issue from its roots in publicly subsidized real estate profiteering and the proliferation of low-wage employment and underemployment. This accommodation has underwritten a corollary retreat from demands for public provision of non-commodified housing for people in need. Instead, concern with ameliorating people’s suffering in whatever ways possible understandably has encouraged ceding that important ground to secure palliative interventions more palatable to governing elites.

Source: The Bullet No. 2994

Is There Dissent in Israel?

By Judy Haiven

If I had a dollar for every time someone told me that ‘there are a lot of Jews in Israel who support a ceasefire’, I’d be – well, not rich, but maybe able to buy one more bag of avocados in each week’s groceries. Yes, I have actually heard this from quite a few people: even when Israel does bad things, people always give Israel and Jews the benefit of the doubt. Palestinians always get the opposite: they are evil and no good. Usually, when someone tells me about all the progressive Israelis, it’s shorthand for that person saying, ‘I don’t want to do anything myself.

Source: The Bullet No. 2995

Enabling Dictatorship and Destroying Democracy

By Muhammad Hidayat Greenfield

In Timothy Ryback’s recently published book Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power, he explains how the establishment (the political and economic ruling elite) allowed Hitler and the Nazi Party to take power, laying the foundations of the Third Reich, with all its devastating consequences. The title of Adam Gopnik’s excellent review of Ryback’s book sums it up perfectly: “The Forgotten History of Hitler’s Establishment Enablers – The Nazi leader didn’t seize power; he was given it.” (The New Yorker, March 18, 2024). In the contemporary US context, parallels are drawn to the establishment’s enabling of Donald Trump. This should not be misunderstood as comparing Trump to Hitler. It is the way in which the establishment enables dictators that is key to our understanding of how it happened and why it is happening now.

Source: The Bullet No. 2996

Short clip: Fall and Rise of American Finance

Authors Scott Aquanno and Steve Maher talk about: The importance of analysing the financial system; The Fall and Rise of American Finance; Challenge the left – finance is not parasitic, and capitalism is strong; Four distinct phases of capitalism

Source: LeftStreamed

Unions, Students, Community and umbrellas at @OccupyUofT rally

OFL open letter to University of Toronto President.

Dear President Gertler, I am writing in my capacity as the President of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), which represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario.

As the voice of Ontario’s labour movement, the OFL unequivocally supports the right of students to engage in peaceful protest on campus, as they call for a ceasefire and divestment from companies that are complicit in war and occupation.

I was therefore disappointed to hear about your ultimatum to the student encampment at the University of Toronto: clear out by Monday at 8:00 a.m. or be in violation of a trespass notice.

Source: LeftStreamed