CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES
4. EMPLOYMENT

No industrial logging in Grassy Narrows Territory

Ontario will decide whether to open part of Grassy Narrows Territory to industrial logging against Grassy Narrows’ will. Leave a message for Minister Rickford and the Regional Director. Tell them that Ontario must respect Grassy Narrows and stop threatening industrial logging in Grassy Narrows Territory!

freegrassy.net

Demand Paid Sick Leave

Doug Ford has once again denied Ontario workers permanent paid sick leave. The Ford Conservatives voted against Bill 8 which would have provided all Ontario workers 10 days of permanent, employer-paid and job-protected sick leave per year, plus 14 additional days during public health outbreaks.

Over 25 times, the Conservative government has had the opportunity to protect public health and vote for adequate paid sick leave for Ontarians, but they’ve refused again and again.

We deserve better. After everything we’ve learned from the pandemic, we can’t allow our leaders to continue to put the public’s health at risk.

ofl.ca

IJV Indigenous Solidarity Workshop Series

When: Dec 9, Jan 20, Feb 24 at 8pm

In this three-part web series, we will gather to question what it means to be non-Indigenous Jewish people living in Canada — also known as Turtle Island. You can come with decades of experience in anti-colonial struggles or if you are just beginning to think about this. Attend one or all sessions!

zoom.us

Yes, Canada Arms and Funds Israel

When: January 4th, 7pm

In mid-December, Canadian diplomat, Robin Wettlaufer, representative to the Palestinian Authority, criticized Electronic Intifada editor Ali Abunimah for stating that Canada “arms and funds the apartheid state.” Wettlaufer responded by writing “We neither arm nor fund Israel.”

Following this, Abunimah and others provided evidence of Canada arming and funding Israel, from direct weapons sales to components of US deliveries to subsidizing charitable donations.

Join a discussion with Ali Abunimah, Karen Rodman, Yves Engler, and Jonathan Kuttab to hear about the ways Canada arms and funds Israel.

Facebook event | zoom.us

The Insurrection: One Year Later

When: January 6th, 3pm

Join ProPublica on the anniversary of Jan. 6 as we examine potential vulnerabilities in the 2022 election and the greatest threats to American democracy.

propublica.org

TTCriders Book Club

When: January 6th, 13th, 20th, 7pm

Join TTCriders as we read Ed Levy’s Rapid Transit in Toronto: A Century of Plans, Progress, Politics & Paralysis.

Each week will start with a brief re-cap followed by discussion questions. You should come even if you haven’t completed the reading!

Please RSVP here to receive the Zoom link.

The TTCriders book club is a friendly place to learn more about transit and from each other so we can better organize for public transit improvements.

Facebook event

Whales versus Militarism: Saving or Destroying the World’s Climate?

By Koohan Paik-Mander

The US military is famous for being the single largest consumer of petroleum products in the world and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Its carbon emissions exceed those released by “more than 100 countries combined.” Now, with the Biden administration’s mandate to slash carbon emissions “at least in half by the end of the decade,” the Pentagon has committed to using all-electric vehicles and transitioning to biofuels for all its trucks, ships and aircraft. But is only addressing emissions enough to mitigate the current climate crisis?

Source: The Bullet No. 2527

A Decade on the Left

The 2010s were the end of ‘the end of history.’ Beginning in the shadow of the largest financial crash since the Great Depression, it was a decade in which the injustice of austerity tore away at the social fabric and consigned third-way politics to the rearview mirror. It has been a tumultuous period for the Left, one in which it suffered seismic defeats but also gained audiences far in excess of any it had seen since the early 1990s. To assess its ramifications Tribune sat down with Leo Panitch, co-editor of the Socialist Register.

Source: The Bullet No. 2266

Starbucks Workers Victorious in Their Fight for a Union

By Sonali Kolhatkar

The iconic American coffee chain Starbucks employs hundreds of thousands of people in nearly 9,000 cafés across the US. And yet, the news that a handful of Starbucks employees at one café in Buffalo, New York, recently voted to join Workers United – an affiliate of SEIU – made headlines nationally. The New York Times called it a “big symbolic win for labor,” while the Washington Post hailed it as a “watershed union vote.” Social media feeds were replete with joyous posts celebrating the vote. The café, located on Elmwood Avenue, was the only one out of three union-voting Starbucks locations in Buffalo that successfully chose to unionize.

Source: The Bullet No. 2528

The Coronavirus Pandemic has Widened Global Inequalities

By Éric Toussaint

The pharmaceutical corporations find it far safer and more profitable to give priority to supplying the rich countries that not only can pay high prices for the vaccines but are also willing to make advance payments covering the production costs to come. This is clearly illustrated in the analysis of the distribution figures of the vaccines. Moderna has allocated 84% of its production to the US and the EU; Pfizer/BioNTech has allocated 98%, and Johnson & Johnson, 79%. Pfizer/BioNTech has delivered to Sweden alone nine times more doses than it has delivered to all the low-income countries put together.

Source: The Bullet No. 2529

Swords into Ploughshares

Simon Black, lead organizer with Labour Against the Arms Trade, speaks to Sam Gindin, former research director of the Canadian Auto Workers (now Unifor), about the promise of repurposing the Canadian arms industry’s resources for socially useful production – and winning a just transition for arms industry workers.

Source: The Bullet No. 2530

Citing Wet’suwet’en Law, Hereditary Chiefs evict Coastal GasLink from their Territor

By Richard Fidler

Supporters of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs announced on December 19 that they have reoccupied a worksite on the Coastal GasLink pipeline route in the nation’s territory, in northern British Columbia. The pipeline is intended to supply fracked natural gas to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Canada’s west coast. The reoccupation is reported in this article by Amanda Follett Hosgood of The Tyee. For a detailed discussion of the matters in dispute, see this Media Backgrounder issued by supporters of the Chiefs. Notably, the Chiefs and their supporters base their opposition to the pipeline and the court injunctions on “Wet’suwet’en law.”

Source: The Bullet No. 2531

Communications & Data Coordinator

Are you a progressive communicator looking for your next challenge? The Toronto & York Region Labour Council has an opening on its small and dynamic staff team to fill in for a one-year leave of absence, with the possibility of becoming permanent. Reporting to the President, the successful candidate will oversee the Council’s communications program and support our diverse campaigns.

The starting rate for the position is $1,317.50 per week. Applicants are invited to send their resume and a short cover letter that highlights their relevant experience by January 4th at 4:00pm to campaigns@labourcouncil.ca.

labourcouncil.ca