Over 90 per cent of Canadians agree that trade is important to the economy. Yet less than half can accurately identify how much our gross domestic product actually depends on it, according to an Ipsos poll. That knowledge gap doesn’t mean Canadians are uninformed; it shows how technical and complex trade really is. And complexity is fertile ground for distortion.
The working class must be ever vigilant of the machinations of the political class. Mark Carney positioned himself as Canada’s response to Trump, but his actions show him to be pro-business and anti-worker.
Workers need to be wary this season. The ground is cluttered with politicians who claim to be our friends. These claims are almost always lies, whether they are uttered in Ottawa or DC, or in any other capital where poisonous populism is celebrated by autocrats. Looking at you, Orban, Putin and Modi!
Big banks across the world are substantially increasing their financing of the fossil fuel industry, including for the industry’s expansion during a time of intensifying climate crisis, all while pulling back from previously stated climate commitments.
For unions to survive, they must embrace antifascism.
In countries across the capitalist world, trade union movements are being challenged to their very core by the growth of right-wing populist and neofascist mass movements. What makes this situation especially dangerous is that labor unions and supporters are facing not just maniacal leaders or even military juntas, but a strengthening political alignment between segments of the capitalist class and these same right-wing social movements.
In 1933, German conservatives thought they could control Hitler. Two years later, they were being executed in their own homes. I spent weeks researching this question, desperately looking for counter-examples, for hope, for any time in history where people successfully stopped fascists after they started winning elections.
Article by Véronique Sioufi, racial equity researcher and policy analyst, BC Policy Solutions
Well beyond New York City’s boroughs, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani has captured public attention with a comprehensive, unapologetically socialist mayoral platform.
