In Syria, the Revolutionary Left Current is involved in the
By David Camfield
Being a fighter for radical change can be meaningful and rewarding. But it isn’t easy. This is especially true when people’s everyday experience doesn’t give them any reason to believe that radical change is possible, which is the situation in Canada and many other places today. Political attrition – people rejecting the possibility of radical social transformation, or giving up any kind of political activity at all – becomes inevitable (though some people who give up or become inactive do come back when circumstances change in their individual lives or in society).
Montreal activist and artist Stefan Christoff’s zine Le fond de l’air est rouge [The essence of the air is red], a collection of articles about the Québec “Red Square” mass movement of 2012, has recently been published by Howl! Arts Collective. New Socialist Webzine interviewed Stefan about the movement, its effects and its lessons. We present the interview along with a series of political art works in the online exhibit by the École de la Montagne Rouge.
Q1: The 2012 student movement in Québec grew into a broader popular movement of a kind that hasn’t happened in Canada or Québec for decades. What role did radical left students of different kinds play in building the movement among university and CEGEP students?
Certainly the Québec student strike occurred outside of the world of official politics, far from a stage-managed process, the radical energy on the streets carried forward a combative approach that stood in direct confrontation to the structures of economic and political power in Québec society.
A statement by Le réseau écosocialiste (the Ecosocialist Network)
“The disaster at Lac-Mégantic cannot not be resolved by a strict inquiry, individual accusations, some superficial regulatory modification and false promises of security. This episode is not just a technical problem, but is a springboard for social mobilisation, for political action aimed at both ecological transition and the liberation from the yoke of unscrupulous big business and their accomplices in the Canadian State.”
Québec has just experienced the most brutal ecological catastrophe of its history. On July 6, 2013, a train loaded with 72 cars carrying crude oil derailed during the night. It exploded in downtown Lac-Mégantic, a small Eastern Townships municipality of 6000. A series of explosions and a fire completely destroyed more than 30 buildings including the municipal library, the town’s archives, heritage buildings, businesses and residences. Police have confirmed that 50 people were killed by the blast.
By Alan Sears
The global slump since 2008 has cast a sharp light on the glaring injustices that characterize global capitalism at every level. Yet there is a horrible gap between the perception that something is wrong and the sense we can do something about it. The greatest challenge anti-capitalists face today is to work towards closing that gap.
By Cinzia Arruzza
A few months ago on the New York subway I saw the most incredible poster, a picture of a crying baby of colour with the words, “Got a good job? I cost thousands of dollars each year”. While I was still recovering from the shock, I saw a similar poster of a little Black girl: “Honestly Mom… chances are he won’t stay with you. What happens to me?”
By Harold Lavender
This is the second part of a two-part article on ecological politics in BC. The first part, on the provincial election, is here.
The dust has settled on the May 14 provincial election in British Columbia, with Christy Clark’s Liberals once again forming a clear majority government. However, the struggle to stop pipelines and the destructive impact of resource extraction megaprojects remains a very hot issue which is not about to go away. Under the Liberals, we can expect a big push for mega-resource development, with a big focus on exporting liquified natural gas (LNG) to Asia along with an austerity agenda with respect to social and environmental protection programs.
By DL Simmons
With the indigenous activists of Idle No More and Defenders of the Land calling to make the summer of 2013 “Sovereignty Summer” — a “campaign of coordinated non-violent direct actions to promote Aboriginal rights and environmental protection in alliance with non-native supporters” — it’s a good time to look at the relationship between indigenous struggle and radical politics. With this in mind, we are glad to publish a revised and updated version of a piece that originally appeared in the special Indigenous Resurgence issue of New Socialist in 2006.
During the peak of the Red Power movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many newly radicalizing indigenous people became interested in exploring various theories of revolution and socialist organization.
By Harold Lavender
Many people were caught off guard by the results of the provincial election in British Columbia on May 14. Prior to the election, the New Democratic Party (NDP) held a large lead in the polls. The incumbent Liberal government seemed in major disarray, and most people assumed the result was a foregone conclusion. The NDP campaigned on the full expectation that it would form the next government.
Review of Lois Weiner, The Future of Our Schools: Teachers Unions and Social Justice (Haymarket, 2012)
By Lisa Descary
By Elena Zeledon
This Wednesday, tens of thousands of Hondurans jammed the central plaza of the impoverished Central American capital,Tegucigalpa, in protest against the latest political manoeuvres of the oligarchy – the 13 families which control Honduras. Answering the call by LIBRE, the Party of Liberty and (National) Refoundation, the activists of the social movements which LIBRE represents came from all parts of Honduras to protest the attempt to change the Electoral Law just hours before the opening of the next Presidential election campaign.
By James Cairns
The Canadian government has been a strong supporter of Israel since the country was founded in 1948 through the expulsion of most of the indigenous Palestinian population from their homes. In its friendly treatment of Israel, Canada has long played an important international role in covering up the violent dispossession of Palestinians and the apartheid system that maintains and normalizes their oppression.