What's Left This Week will be producing a multi-part series on the different ways in which the education sector in Canada is being privatized, with a focus on universities. Also this week, features on copyright, union organizing and migrant rights.
Two features this week. A brief agenda for labour law reform & Factory farms bad for animals, bad for people, bad for the planet. Plus, some light summer reading recommendations.
There are only a few macro-level measures that mainstream economists obsess over. These go in and out of style depending on the state of the global economy, and the crises currently at play. Currently, productivity is all the rage in the pages of political and economic journals and the finance press.
What's Left's mission is to try and be positive, or at least constructive, about politics. After all, we believe in our politics as strongly as we know you believe in yours, and the most important thing is to work together to build something better. Details matter, but fighting over details at the expense of greater progress is often why we on the left stumble while the right steam-rolls on.
There has been a healthy dose of suspicion around the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) – the Conservative government's latest attempt at buying votes. Many have criticized the timing, execution, and eligibility with good cause. However, one of the more substantial issues is that of public policy.
Contributors: Rodney Diverlus on behalf of Black Lives Matter-Toronto. On Sunday July 5th, Toronto police shot and killed Andrew Loku, a 45 year old South Sudanese refugee. A father of 5, Loku escaped war-torn South Sudan in an attempt to find safety in Canada. He was killed in his own home, an apartment building leased by the Canadian Mental Health Association to those with a history of mental health challenges. It has been two weeks since his death. At the funeral, his family and the community laid him to rest without any answers about what happened that caused his death.
This week, independent news outlet ProPublica exposed the snake oil salespeople on Wall Street who have targeted struggling municipalities as a new source of profit. It turns out that desperate city councilors trying to meet negotiated pension obligations and fund crumbling infrastructure are easy prey.
The Greek people sent a strong message to the powers of Europe along with a stinging defeat to capital, finance and liberals pushing for more cuts and suffering. A total of 61.5% voted against economic blackmail and creditor imposed austerity. This was driven by a massive turnout of youth, nearly 70% of whom voted Oxi ('No'). This resounding vote – in the country that invented Western democracy – will bring interesting weeks and months ahead. In many ways, the vote was the easy part.
In the deal (approved by Co-op delegates and the central board with no communication to members), Sobeys (a subsidiary of Empire Company Ltd.) acquired Co-op's wholesale business and several Co-op grocery stores. The day following the acquisition, workers at the newly purchased stores were told to prepare for inventory liquidation and search for new jobs.
A new study by the Parkland Institute details the devastation to Alberta's social services sector following decades of experimentation by the provincial Tories. The main goal of many of these initiatives was to cut government spending on social welfare and offload provision to anyone willing to take them on – for-profit and not-for-profit organizations alike.
