CONTENTS
CALLS TO ACTION
Gig Workers’ Bill of Rights
Gig workers played an essential role keeping our neighbours safe and keeping the restaurant industry afloat during the pandemic, yet they are denied basic rights at work available to all other employees. Now the Ford Conservatives are attacking all Ontario workers. Recommendations from the Ontario Workforce Recovery Advisory Committee would create a third class of worker with less rights than full employees.ofl.ca
EVENTS
A Negotiated Settlement of the Russia/Ukraine Conflict?
When: March 31st, 1pmThe Russia/Ukraine war has lasted a month and it does not seem likely to end quickly. Events are changing every day and escalation can take place any moment — putting the whole world on the verge of a disaster.
Every war ends with a peace agreement. What would an agreement that ends the Russia/Ukraine conflict look like? What are Russia’s goals and what is its bottom line? What can Ukraine agree to in exchange for peace? What are the goals of the US and NATO and what role are they playing? Are the mediation efforts by Turkey, France, and Israel effective and what else is needed? What should US civil society and Congress be advocating?
Our featured guest, Anatol Lieven, is a British journalist, writer and a political scientist.
zoom.us
Fossil Fuel Subsidies
When: Thursday March 31st, 1pmBC’s fossil fuel subsidies are huge, around CAD $1.3 Billion in 2020-21. They are in desperate need of reform to help BC transition to a low-carbon economy. Max Cohen, PhD candidate in Human Geography, UBC, will explain the ins and outs of COP26, his work on just energy transitions from fossil fuels to renewables, and the challenges of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies for a cleaner BC.
zoom.us
Prescription for a healthy pandemic recovery
When: March 31st, 6pmHealth workers are determined to continue speaking up until our patients & communities have the protections they need. Organizing for paid sick days has never been more urgent.
Join us for a conversation with health workers about next steps in our efforts to win legislated paid sick days.
decentworkandhealth.org
#CanadaStopArmingSaudi
When: March 31st, 7pmMarch 2022 marks seven years of the brutal war in Yemen. A war that has killed over a quarter of a million people.
The Saudi-led coalition has bombed Yemeni markets, hospitals, and civilians, and yet Canada has exported over $8-billion in arms to Saudi Arabia since 2015, the year the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen began. It’s despicable for Canada to be profiting from selling billions in arms to Saudi Arabia.
actionnetwork.org
Lessons from Combahee
When: April 1st, 7pmIn the fight for justice today, it has been vital to understand how gender, race, class, sexuality, and ability condition our economic exploitation and shape our identities. How do different forms of oppression interact to shape our experience of capitalism? What is identity politics’ role in our fight to build socialism? How do we confront racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and other forms of oppression in our struggle against capitalism?
Speakers: Fathuma Jama and Patricia Meyer. Email info@springmag.ca for Zoom link.
Facebook event
Commemorating Land Day
When: April 2nd, 2pmWhere: Yonge-Dundas Square
March 30 marks the 46th Commemoration of Land Day. On this day in 1976, Palestinians rose up across Palestine occupied in 1948 in response to Israeli confiscation of Palestinian land in the Galilee region, as part of its plan to “judaize” the Galilee and Al-Naqab area, and uproot the Arab population from it. During the mass popular protests, six Palestinians were killed and more than a 100 injured by Israeli Occupation Forces.
Facebook event
Nuclear power: not fit for purpose?
When: Monday April 4th, 2pmNuclear power is increasingly marketed as part of the solution to the climate crisis and there is considerable support for it from trade unions. In fact it’s dirty, dangerous, expensive, won’t help with our climate problems, and there are far more jobs in renewables. Hosted by CND’s (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) Trade Union Advisory Group.
zoom.us
Rediscovering Fanon
When: April 5th, 6pmRediscovering Fanon trains the spotlight on racially polarized America through the lens of the writings of Frantz Fanon, the revolutionary activist who inspired the battle of Algiers. Acknowledging Fanon as one of most insightful (though misunderstood) 20th century thinkers on race, and race as a profoundly serious human rights dilemma in 2020 America, the film reframes contemporary U.S. struggles against police misconduct with global independence movements during the era when Fanon formulated his prescient race theories.
Facebook event | Register
A Left Response to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
When: April 7th, 7pmInternationally respected linguist and analyst Noam Chomsky and well-known socialist Bill Fletcher, Jr. will be discussing the roots of Russian aggression in Ukraine, the background to the conflict, the US role, and how the Left can respond.
This will be live-streamed on YouTube.
ARTICLES
Spending on Health Must Get Much Larger
By Doug AllanThe long term fiscal and economic outlook released this week by Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) shows that big increases in healthcare spending are required in the years ahead. The FAO forecasts that provincial government spending on healthcare will increase from an average of 6.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) to 7.6% for years 2024 through 2031. It will then go to 8.3% in the 2030s and 9.1% in the 2040s.
Source: The Bullet No. 2585
West’s Response to Russian Invasion Demolishes Excuses for Rejecting BDS Against Apartheid
By Palestinian BDS National CommitteePalestinians are watching with empathy the suffering of millions of Ukrainians facing war, particularly the over two million refugees seeking safety in neighboring countries. In harmony with the absolute majority of humanity living in the Global South, the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the largest coalition in Palestinian society that leads the global BDS movement, opposes war, whether it is Russia’s illegal aggression in Ukraine today, which violates the UN Charter regardless of persistent NATO provocations, or the many patently illegal and immoral US- or NATO- led wars of the past decades which have devastated whole nations and killed millions.
Source: The Bullet No. 2586
The US, Russia and Ukraine: Thinking Beyond the New Cold War
By Vishwas SatgarPutin’s regime, unlike Franco, Mussolini, or Hitler, has a formidable nuclear arsenal. In this context, the contemporary world stands on the brink, facing extinction either through nuclear holocaust emanating from battle fields in Ukraine or from the ever-worsening climate crisis. Meanwhile, in our everyday lives, prices for food and petrol are skyrocketing. Precariousness, uncertainty, and complex risk have become the lived reality of deep globalization in which markets for finance, energy, food, and production have been integrated.
Source: The Bullet No. 2587
Feminist Resistance Against War
We profoundly condemn the military invasion led by the Putin regime in Ukraine, which has already left thousands of people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, and which provokes a sharpening of the confrontation between imperialist blocs at the global level. We reject the positions issued in recent days that deepen the warmongering spiral. We reject the decisions that involve adding more weapons to the conflict and increasing war budgets. We reject security narratives that reinforce authoritarian logic and militarization. Not in our name.Source: The Bullet No. 2588
Historical Development of Capitalism /w Steve Maher
Historical Development of Capitalism – from the early 20th century, to the present: Post WWII, Marshall Plan, Bretton Woods, Post-War Boom, Nixon Shock, Stagflation, Class Discipline, Globalization, Volcker Schock… all leading up to the present Neoliberal stage of Capitalism. What are the features of neoliberalism? Is Neoliberalism over? Where does financialization fit in modern capitalism? Is capitalism in decline?Source: LeftStreamed
EMPLOYMENT
Rabble’s next Labour Beat Reporter?
Are you passionate about the power of journalism for supporting transformative change? Do you find yourself noting how grassroots stories and worker voices are so often missing in mainstream media? Do you want to be part of a highly respected, independent, Canadian non-profit media organization that tells those stories?The position is an employee role at 20 hours per week, based on a rate of $25/hour.
Closing date: April 8, 2022.
rabble.ca