Canada accuses Venezuela of stifling democracy while Parliament remains prorogued PDF Print E-mail
Written by Camilo Cahis   
Friday, 05 February 2010
The Canadian minister responsible for the Americas recently made a short stop in Venezuela. While there, Peter Kent took the opportunity to express the Canadian government’s concerns over the “shrinking democratic space” in Venezuela. Kent’s concerns could be laughable if it were not for the real threat that countries like the US and Canada pose to Venezuela.  Many will remember that it was Peter Kent who most vocally supported the coup d'etat in Honduras this summer.  As well, it is Kent's Conservative government that has just suspended Parliament for the third time in as many years.
 
NDP gains in Hochelaga, Quebec workers seek a labour party PDF Print E-mail
Written by Isa Al-Jaza'iri   
Thursday, 04 February 2010
On 9th November 2009, a federal by-election was held in the Montreal riding of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The results show important gains for the NDP and that Quebecois workers are searching for an alternative to the traditional bourgeois parties. This includes the bourgeois-nationalist Bloc Quebecois, which has dominated this working-class area since 1993. In Quebec, these developments are important because the national question has historically been used to cut across the class struggle, preventing the formation of a genuine labour party.
 
Discussion in Toronto: What next in Iran for revolution and revolutionaries? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Arash Azizi   
Friday, 29 January 2010
On Thursday, 21st January, around 35 people gathered in a hall at the University of Toronto’s Galbraith Building to discuss the rapid political developments in Iran, the next steps for the process, and the role that should be played by revolutionaries.
 
Fightback welcomes the launch of the Toronto Young New Democrats PDF Print E-mail
Written by Julian Benson   
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
This coming Friday (29th Jan. 2010), the Toronto Young New Democrats will be launched.  Fightback welcomes the launch of this new city-wide youth club that will help to inject some much needed activism into the NDP.  For far too long, there hasn't been enough activity to attract young militants into the party; the TYND will be a great way to get young workers active and involved.
 
20,000 protest prorogation: Where now for the movement? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Alex Grant   
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
On Saturday 23rd January, up to 20,000 people demonstrated against Stephen Harper’s prorogation of Parliament. Protests spanned the country, from Halifax to Victoria, with crowds numbering 3,500 on Parliament Hill, between 3,000 and 5,000 in Toronto, and over 1,000 in Vancouver. Who would have thought that an issue of arcane parliamentary procedure could bring so many out on the streets? These protests are merely symptomatic of a growing dissatisfaction in society. The question is, who will be able to give voice to this discontent?
 
No return to privatization! Defend public jobs and services! PDF Print E-mail
Written by Camilo Cahis   
Friday, 22 January 2010
In a move that would put Dr. Seuss’ Grinch to shame, the Ontario government gave Ontario workers a nasty surprise for the Christmas holidays—the renewed threat of mass privatization of public services across the province. When Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals were first elected in 2003, McGuinty promised that the bad old days of attacks and privatization that characterized Mike Harris’ “Common Sense Revolution” were finally over. For years, we have been warning that when push came to shove, McGuinty would be ready to shed his “Mr. Nice” image and reveal the Liberals’ true class interests. The capitalist crisis has given him this opportunity.
 
Horror in Haiti: Imperialism to blame PDF Print E-mail
Written by In Defence of Marxism (marxist.com)   
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
There is a man-made element to the catastrophe confronting Haitians. The country doesn’t just happen to be poor; it has been made poor and kept poor. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, with the worst infrastructure and a people most vulnerable to disaster and disease, because of the machinations of imperialism. Although the earthquake could not be avoided, the scale of death and destruction clearly could have been avoided.
 
Bolshevism and Stalinism PDF Print E-mail
Written by Rob Sewell   
Thursday, 14 January 2010
An avalanche of books has recently been published to discredit Lenin, Trotsky and the Russian Revolution. First and foremost of these writers is Professor Robert Service. The aim of his latest book on Trotsky is to prove that Bolshevism leads to Stalinism and totalitarianism. Here Rob Sewell sets the record straight and explains the huge gulf that divided genuine Bolshevism from the monster of Stalinism that was built on the physical destruction of the Bolshevik party.
 
Québec Solidaire Congress 2009: Working class unity needed PDF Print E-mail
Written by Joel Bergman   
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
For decades politics in Quebec has been dominated by the national question. Ever since the failed Common Front general strike of 1972, the formerly petty bourgeois, and now bourgeois, Parti Quebecois has claimed leadership of the struggle against national oppression and used it to blur the class differences in Quebec society. It is with this in mind that, as Marxists, we were excited with the formation of Quebec solidaire--a party that could move towards the establishment of a real party of the Quebec working class for the first time in history. Joel Bergman of the International Marxist Tendency in Quebec reports from the QS congress in November.
 
Defending the “victims of Communism”, or defending the crimes of capitalism? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Dimitri Gallos   
Thursday, 07 January 2010
During a meeting on 10th September, the Board of Directors of the National Capital Commission granted its approval to erect a monument to the victims of "Communism". As Marxists, we are very much aware of the horrible crimes that were committed by Stalinists all over the world. But, those crimes were not the actions of communism, but rather the despicable crimes of a totalitarian bureaucracy that arose because of the isolation and backward conditions that existed in the Soviet Union. We think that it is no coincidence that the government has chosen this time, in the middle of the capitalist crisis, to once again attempt to discredit the ideas of Marxism.