CONTENTS

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

Victoria’s Secret, Torrid, Lane Bryant: Pay Your Workers!

The Brilliant Alliance Thai Global factory closed in March 2021, leaving 1,388 unionized garment workers, who sewed lingerie for Victoria’s Secret, Torrid, and Lane Bryant, without their jobs. On March 10, workers arrived at the factory for their regular shift only to find the factory permanently closed, and their jobs non-existent. Many of these workers had sewn Victoria’s Secret products for 15 years – initially when the factory was named Body Fashion and then continuing after it was called Brilliant Alliance.

The Thai government ruled that same month that the company had violated Thai labor law, and ordered them to pay the equivalent of US$7.81 million in compensation to the workers within 30 days. More than six months later, Brilliant Alliance hasn’t paid a penny. “The company claimed they had negotiated with the union, but in fact the company unilaterally asked the union to accept installment payments lasting up to 10 years,” said Prasit Prasopsuk, president of the Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand.

payyourworkers.org

Tenant Survey

This survey is focused on the quality of our homes. Tenants pay rent every month – but landlords are able to get away with not doing repairs on time.

ACORN members have been putting pressure on the City of Toronto for Landlord Licensing ever since 2004. Toronto ACORN members were able to win the MRAB (Municipal Residential Apartment Building) Audit and Enforcement Program, but it wasn’t enough to provide a healthy home for all tenants in Toronto. ACORN members kept the pressure on, and started fighting for colour-coded signs for buildings from 2014 and active enforcement. Toronto ACORN members in 2016/2017 won a program called RentSafe, which charges landlords fees per unit and funds property inspectors to inspect apartment buildings, similar to how they inspect restaurants.

docs.google.com

The Revolutionary Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg

When: Saturday January 15th, 1pm EST (6pm UTC)

Join Wellred Books and Marie Frederiksen for the launch and Q&A of her new book The Revolutionary Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg.

This book sets out to examine Rosa Luxemburg’s ideas, not from the distorted myths about her political ideas, or solely about personal questions such as her love life, but from Luxemburg’s very own writings. It is an attempt to provide an insight into the treasure trove of ideas and revolutionary theory that Luxemburg’s works constitute.

tickettailor.com | Facebook event

Launch of Vancouver For All platform

When: January 15th, 10pm

Join organizers and residents of Vancouver in an online rally to launch Vancouver For All, a grassroots, participatory platform, initiated by the DSOV, for the municipal election taking place in October 2022. Help us put the needs of the many over the greed of a few.

eventbrite.com

Covid, climate and capitalist crisis

When: Sunday, January 16th, 1pm

Speakers:

– Martin Empson – Manchester, UK based socialist and author of Land and Labour, System Change – Not Climate Change and many others

– Michelle Robidoux – Toronto-based socialist and co-author of Fighting back on Turtle Island: Indigenous sovereignty, the working class and anti-capitalism

– Moderated by Rohit Revi – PhD student at Queen’s University, anti-racist activist, and member of the International Socialists

socialist.ca

Solidarity with Wet’Suwet’en Highway Disruption

When: January 18th, 8am
Meet at Toronto Music Garden. We will march from there to disrupt the Gardiner.

Horgan and Trudeau are gearing up to send Military RCMP to raid Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders for a FOURTH time on their own sovereign land. Gidimt’en Checkpoint fully supports this action!

We are taking a stand, throwing down on this location together. We are targeting critical infrastructure!! We will not stop protecting Wedzin Kwa. The Coastal GasLink Pipeline will never go through!!

It’s going to be cold, so bring warm clothes. We’re holding it down.

Facebook event

Don’t Look up (watchparty)

When: January 18th, 8pm

Watch with Youth Climate Save Toronto and Climate Save Canada.

We will meet on a zoom call and then we will share the link to the Netflix party screening.

Facebook event

Decent Work Organizing Meeting

When: January 18th, 7pm

Thanks to your incredible effort, there is growing momentum for a $20 minimum wage; for 10 paid sick days plus an additional 2 weeks during pandemics; for equal pay; and for real protections for frontline workers, including gig workers, temp agency workers, part-time workers and casual workers.

We are also fighting for justice for migrant workers, Indigenous sovereignty, and for adequate federal income supports (Canada Recovery Benefits and Employment Insurance).

justice4workers.org

Building Hope Amidst the Climate Crisis

When: January 18th, 7pm

This webinar hopes to deconstruct the climate change discussion and look at the impact it is having, both on Earth and humans. The climate change crisis can raise many different emotions within us, and so, the discussion will explore some of the emotional impacts, as well as how to move forward with a sense of hope amidst the difficult realities, and how to look at Earth itself as a source of hope. Join this interactive session for an evening of sharing and inspiration.

Facebook event

Training: Speak up for transit

When: Jamuary 19th, 6pm

Speak up to reverse TTC cuts! Your City Councillor is voting soon on the 2022 Toronto budget. They must act now to reverse TTC service cuts and lower fares. That’s why TTC users like you will speak up at the public budget consultations about their transit stories and how cuts and fare increases impact you. Sign up to learn how to speak at public budget meetings and share your transit experience with politicians!

ttcriders.nationbuilder.com

58th Edition of Socialist Register

The 58th annual volume of the Socialist Register takes up the challenge of exploring how the new polarizations relate to the contradictions that underlie them and how far ‘centrist’ politics can continue to contain them. Original essays examine the multiplication of antagonistic national, racial, generational, and other identities in the context of growing economic inequality, democratic decline, and the shifting parameters of great power rivalry. Where, how, and by what means can the left move forward?

Edited by Greg Albo, Leo Panitch, and Colin Leys.

fernwoodpublishing.ca

Planning, Democracy, Socialism: Learning from Kerala

The 20th and early 21st centuries have witnessed numerous projects that link planning praxis to strategies of structural change. For the last two generations, the state of Kerala, India has been an important reference point in this history of experiments in popular and democratic planning. Focused on a discussion of the just revised People’s Planning: Kerala, Local Democracy and Development by T.M. Thomas Isaac and Richard W. Franke (LeftWord, New Delhi, 2021), this forum looks at the lessons from the Kerala case with all its promises, limitations and contradictions.

Source: LeftStreamed

One World or No World. Choose!

By Susan Rosenthal

The emergence of yet another COVID variant as well as a surge of new infections and restrictions have people wondering if this pandemic will ever end. We’ve known how to stop infectious disease transmission for over a century. The problem is that our profit-driven society is structured to a) promote the spread of infectious diseases and b) block effective measures to stop them. Consider the scale of the problem. COVID-19 spread so quickly around the globe because capitalism is an international economic system.

Source: The Bullet No. 2536

Ukrainians Are Far From Unified on NATO: Let Them Decide for Themselves

By Volodymyr Ishchenko

After weeks of media scare about a purported Russian military invasion of Ukraine, the conflict may get a chance to be solved in a negotiated way. The public conversation on the current escalation of the Russian-Western conflict over Ukraine is, however, quite ironic. At least on the surface, it focuses on guarantees that Ukraine would not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance, which is not only far from inviting Ukraine to join but which most Ukrainians themselves do not want to enter.

Source: The Bullet No. 2537

Doug Ford’s New Long-Term-Care Legislation, Tolls for All of Us

By Nancy Olivieri, Michael Hurley, Vivian Stamatopoulos, and Natalie Mehra

Hope to live out your old age in dignity and comfort? Think again, after Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s “new” long-term-care legislation, Bill 37, was rushed through with furtive speed, just before the holidays. Ushering in a series of deadly amendments to the existing Long-Term Care Homes Act, this bill was submerged in the media tsunami around Omicron – but is, arguably, as deadly. There was a reason behind this haste. Many citizens may not know what we have lost, and Ford does not want us to know.

Source: The Bullet No. 2538

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 17th at 12pm to campaigns@labourcouncil.ca.

labourcouncil.ca