Over 50 comrades attended the second annual Northeast Marxist School in Montreal last weekend. Organized by supporters of La Riposte Quebec, Fightback Canada and Socialist Appeal USA, the school was a resounding success that saw a 30% rise in attendance from the previous year.  Comrades from Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, New York, and New Jersey enjoyed two days of vibrant political discussion and revolutionary socials. The most important lesson of the weekend was the pressing need for a revolutionary tendency with correct Marxist ideas to help the working class achieve its emancipation. This year’s sharp increase in attendance is a reflection of the revolutionary epoch we have entered.

With the Arab revolutions, the Euro crisis, the mass movement in Greece, and the Occupy movement, more and more workers and youth are looking for a socialist alternative to capitalist austerity. Fightback Canada, La Riposte Quebec, and Socialist Appeal USA are organizing their second annual Marxist school in Northeast North America to provide Marxist answers to arm militant activists in the struggles to come. (French announcement is also available.)

Fightback and La Riposte supporters converged in Toronto for the May long weekend to attend the annual Fightback national conference. This year, over 40 comrades from Fredericton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, with international guests from Britain, were able to attend and discuss the rapid changes occurring around the world. The conference also marked the 10th anniversary of supporters of the ideas of the International Marxist Tendency organizing national meetings in Canada; to begin the conference, a picture from the first conference in 2001 was shown, and comrades could see how far we had come in the past decade.

Fresh from his appearance at Fightback’s 2011 national conference, In Defence of Marxism editor Fred Weston spoke at the University of Toronto’s OISE building on May 24 to discuss the Arab Revolution and specifically its effects on Syria. While the fate of the Assad regime remains uncertain, the widespread revolts that have shaken the country to its foundations are only the beginning of a long process, which Fred put in the context of the wider Arab Revolution.

On Friday, February 11th, the day that is now known as the day of Mubarak's resignation, about 60 people attended the public forum co-organized by Fightback, the University of Toronto Arab Students' Association, and the Ryerson Arab Students' Association. Unfortunately, because of Mubarak’s toppling, two of the invited speakers had to cancel in order to participate in an impromptu celebration at Yonge-Dundas Square, but it did allow for the event to become a celebration of sorts!

This past Friday, Fightback supporters in Toronto helped to organize a discussion titled, "Egypt, Tunisia -- Where Next?" at the University of Toronto.  Co-organized with the Arab Students' Associations at U of T and Ryerson University, the meeting was well-attended despite an impromptu celebration rally organized for the same time.

About 40 Marxists from central Canada and the eastern United States attended the recently completed Eastern Canada Marxist School, held over a snowy February weekend in downtown Montreal. The school was a fantastic success, helping to deepen our understanding of a tumultuous world, as well as forging closer links between the Marxist forces in the eastern part of North America, who can often feel quite isolated given the great distances between them.

The Marxists of Fightback have been very busy intervening the week-long series of events leading up to this weekend's G20 summit in Toronto!  On Saturday, we will have a permanent tent set up at Queen's Park, so come visit us and pick up some Marxist literature!  We will have a public meeting on building a socialist alternative to the G20 on Saturday, 26 Jun. at 7pm at the Imperial Pub, 54 Dundas St. E.

As well, Alex Grant was interviewed yesterday (23 Jun.) on Sun TV in Toronto.  Watch the interview here.

Hundreds of workers, activists, youth, trade unionists, and students gathered this past weekend at Toronto’s Ryerson University to organize “The 2010’s People’s Summit: Building a movement for a just world.” Aside from the scores of workshops, the summit was aimed at organizing the week-long series of events and demonstrations against the G20 summit in the city, culminating with the giant rally at Queen’s Park on 26th June.