Green New Deal/LEAP

The devastating fires in Fort McMurray show the urgent need to transition to an economy that supports people and the planet, and this is part of a transition in climate justice politics.

This new platform plank removes the old wording entirely and addresses the economic inequalities, social inequalities, and productivism of both capitalism and state socialism and emphasizes grassroots democracy in the workplace. This workplace grassroots democracy has been largely absent from the Green platform, and many believe it is the way forward for a truly ecological economy and a new system.

Doug McCorquodale is a thirty five year member, activist and official with unions in mining and construction. June 10, 2016 - The Leap Manifesto has caused quite a stir on the Left and the Right. Tens of thousands have signed on as supporters. The right wing press, the one per centers and rightist minions of the “free” market economy often viciously denigrate the Leap Manifesto.

The People’s Climate Plan Teach-in, held in Toronto June 4, took great strides forward in presenting a forceful alternative to the inadequate and deceptive climate action proposals of Canada’s federal government.

With each day the bad news spreads. A gigantic wildfire now covering some 4,000 km² is spreading through northeastern Alberta and into Saskatchewan — devastating much of Fort McMurray, the city in the heartland of the tar sands. Some 90,000 residents have been displaced and thousands of homes, many local industries and businesses, destroyed.

[Editor's note: The Leap Manifesto says: "Since so much of the labour of caretaking - whether of people or the planet - is currently unpaid and often performed by women, we call for a vigorous debate about the introduction of a universal basic annual income."  Following is an article with some cautions about such an income.]

[to go to the link for this article you need to go directly to Ricochet Media]

It’s been a tough month for climate advocates, who at the close of last year would have been justified in feeling Canada had turned a corner on climate change, with even our laggardly politicians starting to grasp its uncompromising scientific realities.