The victory of the OZ slate in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) union, headed by Sean O’Brien and Fred Zuckerman and backed by Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), has raised the question: Will this new leadership bring about reform in one of the nation’s largest and most powerful unions? Real reform would mean a union that is free from corruption, more democratic, willing to mobilize the members to fight the bosses, and capable of also addressing broader social issues like Trumpism, COVID, and climate change.

As Chile drafts a new constitution, will Canadian companies still cash in on a mining boom driven by demand for renewable energy?

Even though you wouldn’t know if you only followed the corporate media, in January violence continued to spiral in Colombia. Human rights movements recorded an increase of attacks against police stations, military bases, and civilians and reported assassinations and intimidation against social leaders in several departments. In February, the panorama has been no different.

As the drums of war sound for Ukraine, what will be the impact on Ukraine’s economy and the living standards of its 44m population, whether war is avoided or not?

Given the signs it’s a foreign-funded campaign, you’d think Jason Kenney would be all over it.

By Spring Magazine | A report from an anonymous Ottawa resident

Nora Loreto | Passage | The use of these powers to deal with protesters is an attack on our right to assemble, even if we absolutely oppose the protest.

Canada has been rocked in recent weeks by the "Freedom Convoys" that have descended on the nation's cities and blocked border crossings across the country. Bryan D. Palmer maps the political and social composition of this new alt-right uprising.

by Vijay Prashad | The UN has warned that about half the population of the country are “facing a record level of acute hunger.”

given the latest discussion, I can add two things which are a reminder of MMT’s faultlines: first as explanation of money flows in a capitalist economy; and second, whether government spending financed by the state issuance and the ‘creation’ of money can deliver economic growth, full employment and rising incomes without touching the sides of capital’s exploitation of labour.

To detractors, the UFCW agreement dilutes the drive to win full rights for gig workers, in what could be the defining fight of a generation. Meanwhile, some experts note that the agreement raises a host of questions and legal problems that could come back to haunt UFCW and the vulnerable workers it seeks to represent.

Covid-19 has provided a stark reminder that today’s world is both scarred by grotesque levels of inequality and populated by billions of vulnerable people. However, it has also stimulated renewed interest in “global public goods” (GPGs) and how this foundational idea might be utilized to address a range of social crises, including climate change.

Such “energy-only” markets rely on investors to anticipate demand for all conditions and build appropriate resiliency into the system. They allow prices to soar during extreme events to incentivize preparedness.

As Amarnath Amarasingam has detailed, GiveSendGo is positioning itself as an alternative to GoFundMe. Founded as a Christian crowdfunding site, it hosted a fundraiser to help defend the leader of the Proud Boys. Now it is the new fundraiser of choice for the Ottawa convoy and has raised more than $2.4 million.

Amid a national housing crisis, giant private equity firms have been buying up apartment buildings en masse to squeeze them for profit, with the help of government-backed Freddie Mac. Meanwhile, tenants say they’re the ones paying the price.

We have to reject winnowing the entire COVID debate down to punitive powers of mandates and lockdowns and focus on building broad campaigns that speak to issues faced by workers. To do otherwise is to leave the door open for the rightwing to pull the entire debate to the right and strengthen the hand of the bosses.

Workers in Canada’s trucking industry have suffered during the pandemic. The “Freedom Convoy,” a right-wing, pro-business social movement, purports itself to be the people’s champion of liberty — yet it couldn’t care less about the hardships and burdens of its fellow workers.

Much was made of US annualized 6.9% real GDP growth in Q4 2021, much higher than 2.3% in Q3 and well above forecasts of 5.5%. It was the strongest GDP growth in five quarters. But this headline figure hid some serious holes in the ‘growth story’. The biggest contribution to that 6.9% points came from inventory stocking (4.9% pts) – apparently car dealers restocking vehicles still to sell. Household spending contributed 2.2% points and business investment just 0.28% pts. Net exports (exports minus imports) contributed nothing; and government spending made a negative contribution of 0.5% pts (as taxes outstripped spending). Leaving out inventories, the US economy expanded by just 2% in Q4. Over the whole of 2021, the US economy jumped 5.7% after contracting 3.4% in 2020. US real GDP is now 3.1% higher than in pre-COVID 2019, but still 1.2% pts behind where GDP would have been if there had been no COVID slump.

In a recent piece for The Breach, writer and organizer Emma Jackson calls for an “expansive left populism” to defeat the far-right. While she identifies many of the fronts on which the left must fight, it remains unclear how populism as such should serve as a working program for broad left demands, given its susceptibility to the politics of reaction.

The demands of imperialism are what’s driving Congress, determining what gets funded and what’s put aside. Right now, the U.S. sees the confrontation with Russia as a way to cut Europe off from Russian gas–and force it to buy U.S.-controlled gas – as well as blocking the “Silk Road” overland trade with China. That’s why the Democrats can pass the biggest Pentagon budget increase ever but can’t manage to fund Build Back Better.