Socialist Fightback

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Happy May Day! See everyone in the May Day rally Zoom room at 1:00pm EST! Click below link to join then: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87191398399... Speakers include: 1492 Land Back Lane activist Skyler Williams Health Providers Against Poverty - Dr. Naheed Dosani Canada’s NDP / Le NPD du Canada MP Niki Ashton Fightback activist Marco La Grotta Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) president Patty Coates Socialist Action Canada activist Julius Arscott CUPE Local 3906 - President Sharoni Mitra & Shirleen Datt FoodShare Toronto leader Paul Taylor Worker-Communist Party of Iran Toronto activist Mohsen Ebrahimi Worker-communist party of Iran (Hekmatist) Fakhri Javaheri ATU Local 113 member Jason Watts Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) presidential candidate J.P. Hornick Worker-communist party of Kurdistan activist Aras Rashid Left-Worker-Communist Party of Iraq activist Samir Noory John Clarke Durham Region Labour Council president Tiffany Balducci Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran Soheila Dalvand Radio Payam Canada - Amir Payam Hamilton & District Labour Council president Anthony Marco New Brunswick NDP, Socialist Caucus - Chris Thompson Vancouver Socialist Unity Assembly - Yvonne Hanson Communist Workers Circle - Tynan Liebert

Help strengthen a revolutionary socialist organization, support an independent workers' press, and get a free May Day poster! For a limited time, if you get a solitary subscription to Fightback, in addition to an ongoing subscription of our paper, you can also receive an 8.5x11 print on glossy paper of a May Day poster drawn by one of our members . Just go to marxist.ca/subscribe to subscribe and comment below or message our page to get your poster.

The launch event for the Ontario Coalition Against Ford is happening now! Check out the live stream and join the discussion

Join the Ontario Coalition Against Ford to fight for the measures that will keep working-class people from dying needlessly! We need to put pressure on this government with mass direct action! Please sign the open letter and join the movement!

Happening tonight!

Solidarity with the Waterloo childcare essential workers demanding to be vaccinated! This is the type of direct action that is needed to put pressure on the disastrous Ford government! The rest of the labour movement needs to do the same, we need mass work refusals, walkouts, sick-outs and strikes demanding paid sick days, double hazard pay for front line workers, the shutting down with pay of the non-essential workplaces and mass vaccinations. This crisis demands bold action, it is a matter of life and death! Read more on the childcare workers here: https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/staff-at-waterloo-child-care-c

More on media manipulation. In the aftermath of the Bristol protests against the new policing bill at the weekend, the mass media acted as a loudspeaker for the... police version of events. A violent mob had set upon frail police officers and vans. Several police officers had suffered broken bones. There was no attempt on the part of the media to further enquire, ask for details, nor to present the other side of the story, that of the protesters. Their version of events was completely at odds with that of the police. A peaceful demonstration, thousands strong, had marched across the streets of Bristol despite police harassment. It was then blocked by lines of police and attacked by riot police wielding shields and batons, officers on horseback, using pepper spray and dogs against the protesters. The bit about "officers [plural] having suffered broken bones [including ribs]" was splashed across the headlines. Three days later, the police has admitted that there were NO BROKEN BONES. Thankfully following a full medical assessment of the two officers taken to hospital, neither were found to have suffered confirmed broken bones. So, the broken bones were MADE UP. An INVENTION. Some would say A LIE. What was the intention? Clearly to whip up public opinion against the demonstrators and create a law and order lynch mob against anyone who protests the new policing bill. That the police should LIE about what happened is bad enough. That the mass media should repeat those lies without questioning them is also scandalous. Not necessarily surprising, but scandalous nevertheless and at odds with the stated aims of both the police and the media. In the meantime, there was strong pressure on everyone, but particularly on the left, to denounce the violence of the demonstrators, to distance themselves from the thuggish mob. It's not the first time. Some caved in. Some stood our ground.

The COVID pandemic and it's disproportionate effect on women has intensified another pandemic, one of domestic violence. Reports of domestic violence have doubled and severity of such violence has increased. Despite several national and international reports about the increased cases of domestic violence, resources remain scant. In 2019, 10,000 women were turned away from Québec women shelters due to over capacity. Read more on our website (marxist.ca/article/the-pandemic-of-domestic-violence), or in issue 146 of Fightback (marxist.ca/subscribe-to-fightback).

Want to read about labour news, current events from a socialist perspective, and support an independent paper? You should probably subscribe to Fightback marxist.ca/subscribe-to-fightback

The Atlanta attacks have brought the poison of anti-Asian racism to the forefront. The recent increase in this racist violence is a continuation of decades of d...iscrimination, built into the foundations of American capitalism. Read our latest article on this: https://bit.ly/3sl8Om4 #StopAsianHate

Understanding and ending the oppression of Indigenous people requires a study of the development of Canadian capitalism, which was founded and built on the brut...al exploitation and colonization of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. A study of this history also clearly shows that the continued oppression and suffering of Indigenous peoples today is inherently linked to the capitalist system, and points the way forward for emancipation through the fight for the socialist transformation of society. #MikmaqRights #CdnPoli READ MORE HERE: https://marxist.ca//indigenous-struggle-and-the-fight-for- This document is the product of over 20 years of study and participation in the fight of Indigenous peoples against Canadian capitalism. Over the years, we have learned from real-world struggle, and have detailed these experiences on the www.marxist.ca website. Revolution not Reconciliation encompasses the accumulated conclusions of the supporters of the International Marxist Tendency, Indigenous and non, applying Marxist theory to the movement on the ground. This process culminated in the 2019 Fightback/La Riposte Socialiste congress, where a draft version of the document was discussed, amended, and adopted, as the official position of the IMT. Here we detail a revolutionary Marxist analysis of the origin of Indigenous oppression, in opposition to the liberal/reformist hypocrisy of reconciliation, and the trap of identity politics and postcolonial theory, pushed by comfortable academics. The conclusions of this work have never been more timely, given the recurring explosions of Indigenous struggle in 2020. Only through mass revolutionary struggle against capitalism can all the oppressed be genuinely liberated. We appeal to all to study these lessons, discuss the conclusions, and unite with us in struggle. Join us here: https://marxist.ca/what-is-fightback#get-involved This document is also available for purchase in our bookstore: https://marxist.ca/store/booklets

Socialist Fightback Kitchener-Waterloo stands in solidarity with our Haitian activists and the Haitian working class! No to the privatisation of education! No to the privatisation of health services! Down with the Moïse regime! For international solidarity with the struggle in Haiti!... Down with imperialism, for socialism in Haiti! #solidaritéaveclalutteenhaïti #ABasLeRégimeMoïse Read more and help in the solidarity campaign here: https://www.marxist.com/haiti-solidarity-2020.htm See more

A massive conflict has erupted in the lobster fishery in Nova Scotia, where Mi’kmaq fishermen are being subjected to harassment, violence, and vandalism. How d...id we get here? What is the best path to uphold Indigenous rights and find a way out of this crisis? Read more: https://marxist.ca//crisis-over-fishing-rights-in-nova-sco

This is rich coming from Shoppers Drug Mart, given that their majority shareholder, Galen Weston, is worth 10.5 billion dollars! Working people in Canada and around the world are underpaid by these companies, and then forced to buy overpriced goods, all so Galen Weston and friends can get even richer! Period poverty, like every kind of poverty, is a capitalism problem: if working people ran society, we could solve all of this overnight. You only need to look at the comments on the post to see more and more people are realizing this. If you're sick and tired of all this bullshit, you should join us https://marxist.ca/what-is-fightback

Join us this Wednesday for an important discussion on Marxist economics and the crisis of capitalism!

We are now into the second week of #canadianmarxistuniversity! This week's talks are "What would socialism look like" and "Abolish the police: the Marxist view of the state". Missed last week's talks? "What is Marxism" and "The relevance of the Communist Manifesto" are now available to view on the Fightback page: https://www.facebook.com/CanadaMarxists/videos Register at marxist.ca/university