Montreal Marxist Winter School 2024: in defence of Lenin! The 14th Montreal Marxist Winter School – organised by Fightback/La Riposte, the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency – will take place on 17-18 February 2024. To mark 100 years since the death of the great Russian revolutionary, the event will be dedicated to the life and ideas of Lenin.
Canada: the standing ovation for a Nazi in parliament was not just a mistake Canada’s Parliament has made the PR gaffe of the century by inviting a known Nazi collaborator into the House of Commons and giving him a standing ovation. While certainly an embarrassing blunder, this was more than a one-off mistake. The incident puts the full spotlight on the pattern of Canadian imperialism of whitewashing Ukrainian fascists; and on the complete...
Canada is burning: socialism or climate catastrophe The second-largest forest fire in British Colombian history. The town of Chibougamau, Quebec, evacuated in the middle of the night. A Halifax suburb burned down. Toronto and Montreal covered in smog. All of this occurring as early as May and June.
2023 Fightback Congress steels Canadian Marxists for class war Around 250 revolutionaries gathered in Toronto on May 20-22 for the 2023 Congress of Fightback and La Riposte socialiste, the Canada and Quebec section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). The latest congress took place as global capitalism faces unprecedented crisis on all fronts, from rampant inflation and debt to the war in Ukraine to the...
Canada: Angry voices from the PSAC pickets – ‘We can put the powers that be in place’ Over 155,000 federal government workers organized with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) are leading one of the largest strikes in Canadian history, after years of real wage cuts and fruitless negotiations.
Canada: PSAC’s 155,000 federal workers preparing for picket lines – strike to win! We republish here an article written by comrades of Fightback, the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency, written in advance of the recent public sector strike. This strike involved over 155,000 workers organised by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), making it one of the largest strikes in Canadian history. This article, originally published 18 April, provides useful background information for an international audience.
In case you missed it: Montreal Marxist Winter School 2023 On 18 and 19 February, 460 Marxists from across Canada, as well as international guests, met for the Montreal Marxist Winter School 2023, hosted by Fightback/La Riposte, the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency. This year’s event was themed around “The Revolutionary Party”, with sessions discussing the lessons of previous efforts to build a revolutionary Marxist organisation. In case you missed it, you can now watch and listen to all the talks online!
Canada: 460 attend Montreal Marxist School marked by revolutionary optimism! The return of the Montreal Marxist Winter School in person after a three-year absence did not disappoint. Four-hundred and sixty people gathered for a weekend of Marxist education in an electric atmosphere. Held under the theme “The Revolutionary Party”, we came away more confident than ever that we will succeed in building the revolutionary organization needed to overthrow capitalism!
Canada: workers angry at CUPE school board deal As the long-awaited results of the ratification vote for the contract brought forward by the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) were announced, there was a wave of anger over the yes vote. Workers said they were “bullied”, “this is bull&!”, “you built us up and let us down”, “many will be leaving the position because they can’t afford to work”, “screwed for another 4yrs!!!”, “we were so united and now divided… this contract does absolutely nothing to help students or ease our...
Canada: CUPE workers presented with deal that "badly sucks" – vote no! On Sunday, Nov. 20, the bargaining team for 55,000 Ontario CUPE education workers agreed to a tentative agreement with the Ford Conservatives, canceling their planned strike. The agreement, which will be put to members for a vote this week, has been widely criticized by hundreds of members of our union, as it only contains a $1 annual wage increase over four years.
Canada: general strike threat defeats “back-to-work” legislation, but workers’ contract unresolved For the first time, Canadian workers have forced the repeal of back-to-work legislation. The inspiring struggle of the 55,000 Ontario education workers has achieved an important partial victory.
Canada: spread the strike, make it general, bring down Ford! 55,000 education workers in Ontario, Canada (organised by the public sector union CUPE) are waging an inspiring struggle against the rotten provincial government of Doug Ford. Defying legal threats and dirty constitutional attempts to force them back to work and impose wage cuts, the workers are on indefinite strike action to protect their living standards against soaring inflation. This example is drawing other layers into the fight, and there is talk of an Ontario-wide general strike.
Canada: victory to Ontario education workers! Defy back-to-work legislation! Strike until victory! Negotiations have broken down between the Ontario government and 55,000 education workers. Even before a strike has been launched, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce has tabled draconian legislation to take away the democratic right to strike of education workers. Going one step further, the government is also using the notwithstanding clause to eliminate collective bargaining rights altogether and impose a rotten contract on education workers who are among the poorest unionised workers in the province.
Bank of Canada demands workers get poorer Tiff Macklem, the governor of the Bank of Canada, recently told businesses that it was their duty to attack the living standards of workers for the sake of inflation. Despite the fact the corporations are making record profits, and there is absolutely zero evidence linking wages to inflation, Canada’s top banker insisted that workers must be forced to suffer. There can be no better evidence that capitalism is an anti-worker system and that workers must fight for its overthrow.
The Third Western Canadian Marxist Summer School a complete success! On July 2 and 3, 2022 over 100 people gathered in Edmonton for the third annual Western Canadian Marxist Summer School. This was the first large in-person gathering of Marxists in Western Canada since 2019, and the biggest in living memory. People from all over the country, from Montreal to Victoria and even the Yukon attended. The success of the school shows that workers and youth in Western Canada want to fight against capitalism, and they’re looking for ideas and an organization that can help them win.