Frances Abele CM is Distinguished Research Professor and Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy Emerita at Carleton University. She is a research fellow at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation and the Broadbent Institute. Much of her work focuses on indigenous-Canada relations.
Even before the pandemic, decades of cuts and austerity were already pushing Canada’s social fabric to a breaking point. Now, more Canadians than ever are being forced to turn to food banks to stave off hunger.
Sam Bankman-Fried, apostle of “effective altruism,” has done one good thing for humanity: he’s revealed that finance, and particularly crypto, is a wasteful cesspool that must be reined in.
Rents are too high. Joe Biden should issue an executive order to lower them.
In a historic election, the rank-and-file caucus in the United Auto Workers has won several top positions, potentially even including international president. It’s a landmark victory that anyone who wants a fighting labor movement should celebrate.
Last week, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro filed a complaint with Brazil’s highest court on election law, claiming buggy voting machines denied him victory in October’s election. The court ruled against him — but like Trump, Bolsonaro won’t admit defeat anytime soon.
The Chicago City Council’s Socialist Caucus has five members. Nick Ward wants to join them. We spoke to the socialist candidate about his campaign.
Congress will soon vote on an $850 billion military budget that would lavish over $400 billion on private contractors. It would be a massive redistribution of wealth to for-profit hands — at the same time millions of workers are struggling to pay the bills.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Brazilian footballer Sócrates used his sport as a vehicle to challenge military dictatorship and fight for democracy. Qatar’s ugly World Cup needs more of that heroic spirit today.
After decades of stagnant wage growth and the collapse of enterprise bargaining, Australia is in crying need of industrial relations reform. The Labor Party’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act promises this — the question is whether it can actually deliver it.
As Canadian workers face down rising living costs on stagnant wages while corporate profits soar, the country’s financial press is raising the alarm over a coming “labor Armageddon.” Such a reckoning would be both unsurprising and fully warranted.
Joe Biden’s betrayal of railworkers is a case study in everything that’s wrong with the Democratic Party: a party that talks about workers’ rights while governing in the interests of capital.
The booming railroad industry has delivered multimillion dollar payouts to CEOs and shareholders in recent years. The industry has also shoveled millions of dollars into campaign contributions — no wonder Congress knocked down pro–rail worker legislation.
Paid sick leave is a right we all deserve — and an urgent public health issue. Win or lose, we’re indebted to the railworkers for their fight to achieve it.
We spoke with a train engineer about President Biden undemocratically forcing a union contract on rail workers, the failures of rail unions’ leadership during negotiations, and why he thinks progressives in Congress should be “commended” for their role in pushing for seven paid sick days.
The EU is watering down its tepid plans for ecological reform as energy prices soar. The Left has to escalate the struggle for social and environmental justice in Europe and oppose attempts to shift the burden of climate chaos onto the Global South.
It’s not just Starbucks anymore: workers at two California Peet’s Coffee stores announced their intention to unionize. The worker-driven model at the heart of Starbucks Workers United is spreading.
Socialists have unique advantages in California, where a “jungle” primary system elevates the top two candidates to the general election regardless of party affiliation, and the Republican Party is moribund. Let’s take advantage of it.
Rising inflation doesn’t affect everyone equally. The way this current bout of inflation is playing out isn’t a law of nature but a result of political decisions to protect investors while hanging workers out to dry.
The Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was a blow to reproductive rights. But fortunately, new data suggest that most of those seeking abortions still seem to be getting them.
The death of cleaner Refat Süleyman at a Thyssenkrupp steel plant has put the spotlight on Germany’s exploitation of migrant workers. It’s also a story about deregulation — and how outsourcing is letting corporations cut corners on working conditions with impunity.