Editors (What's Left)

Never too early to start exposing bad Liberal policy | What's Left

The honeymoon with the Liberal Party (federal and provincial) is dragging-on a bit for those who fight for social and economic justice. While much of the population continue to get their news from media sources enamoured with the new Liberal brand, substantive change is hard to come by. Advancing free trade agreements and hobnobbing with the world's financial elite aside, progressive changes to employment insurance, welfare programs, and investment in public services are lagging.

Interest Rates | What's Left

Long the focus of US poverty activists and workers' representatives, arguments for maintaining low interest rates are gaining some support from some unlikely places.

Flint water crisis | What's Left

Much of the news around Flint, Michigan's water issues are focusing on the terrible government management of their water systems, the slow response to the lead crisis affecting the city's citizens, and the donations being made by private bottled-water companies.

Zika and economic inequality | What's Left

The explosion of the Zika virus is devastating lives in Latin America where a connection between the virus and birth defects of the brain have been discovered.

What's Left 2016-01-31 Volume 43

Insecure Internet devices, Liberal honeymoon's coming to an end, massive rally in solidarity with retired Steelworkers and more.

When employers seek to divide and conquer, our only defense is solidarity | What's Left

It was a bad week for media workers. Halifax-based newspaper The Chronicle Herald is getting scab-ready for a bargaining round in which they are hoping to lower wages, increase work hours, and layoff over a quarter of their sixty staff. The Toronto Star announced the closure of a Vaughan printing plant, meaning that 220 full-time and 60 part-time workers will lose their jobs. The industry is shifting, and workers are left wondering what tools they have to resist short-sighted profit-obsessed employers and present a vision of the future where integrity, sustainability, and quality journalism are at the heart of the industry.

What's Left 2016-01-17 Volume 41

It was a bad week for media workers. Halifax-based newspaper The Chronicle Herald is getting scab-ready for a bargaining round in which they are hoping to lower wages, increase work hours, and lay-off over a quarter of their sixty staff. The Toronto Star announced the closure of a Vaughan printing plant, meaning that 220 full-time and 60 part-time workers will lose their jobs. The industry is shifting, and workers are left wondering what tools they have to resist short-sighted profit-obsessed employers and present a vision of the future where integrity, sustainability, and quality journalism are at the heart of the industry.

Failure of New York City's first Social Impact Bond | What's Left

The first Social Impact Bond (SIB) to be tested in New York City has failed to deliver on its promises. The program the Bond was invested in, saw millions of dollars spent counseling youth in prison with the goal of reducing their chances of re-offending.

We have greatly enjoyed writing What's Left each week this year. We are grateful to you all for the words of encouragement and solidarity (and constructive criticism/corrections) received every week. This has helped to improve the newsletter and keeps us going.

How can work in the 21st century be better for workers? | What's Left

It won't come as a surprise that capitalist think-tanks are putting forward a vision of work that should trouble anyone who works for a living. Groups such as the Policy Network and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) promote future dystopia for workers where the nature of our work is perpetually precarious, privatized, and fully market-driven. It is a vision where robots, computer programs, and artificial intelligence replace all of the world's jobs that defined and established today's affluent worker.