Mining multinational Vale is trying to strip its workers in Sudbury of vital benefits using the pandemic as cover. They’ve responded with strike action, building on a long tradition of militant trade unionism in the region.

Shaikh argues that the monopoly capital school base their view of ‘fundamental change’ on a false reality that back in the mid-19th century when Marx wrote Capital, that capitalism worked in ‘perfect competitive markets’ which now longer exist and have been replaced by monopolies backed by the state.  But this was never the case.  As Shaikh puts it: “the capitalist economy should not be viewed as a “perfect” market economy with accompanying “imperfections”, but as individual capitals in competition to gain profit and market share. Monopoly should not be counterposed to competition, as neoclassical, orthodox, and even some Marxist economists do. Real competition is a struggle to lower costs per unit of output in order to gain more profit and market share. In the real world, there are capitals with varying degrees of monopoly power competing and continually changing as monopoly power is lost with new entrants to the market and new technology that cuts costs.

A month since teacher and labor activist Pedro Castillo was elected Peruvian president, his far-right opponents are still trying to stop him from taking office. The attempt to overturn the election shows the elites' refusal to accept defeat — and the dangers the Left faces as it seeks a break from the country's neoliberal model.

As protests break out in Cuba, some politicians are calling for US intervention. That would be a disaster. The best thing the United States can do to help the Cuban people is lift its brutal, inhumane embargo.

Monthly Review | by Sit Tsui, He Zhixiong and Yan Xiaohui

In 2019, the Greens were a rising threat to the New Democratic Party and looked like they could even overtake it within a few election cycles. Now, after a series of bizarre and self-destructive decisions, the GPC looks like it will be all but wiped out following the next federal election. Meanwhile, its decline poses an challenge for the NDP and those demanding climate action from electoral parties.