r/canadaleft Jun 12 '24

Sub Announcement A clarification on immigration, racism, and CanadaLeft

201 Upvotes

Hello comrades!

Recent discussion surrounding a particular second subreddit for supposedly discussing housing in Canada has disappointingly revealed we're not immune to falling into racism and xenophobia when discussing the immigration issue just because we're on a subreddit with "Left" in the name. As such, I think this deserves a thread clarifying how to better our discussions when talking about this to avoid stepping into such trappings.

The context

The Liberal government of Canada has been pursuing high immigration targets to address pressure in the labour market from a shortage of workers.1 These targets come as post-COVID economic inflation and the already tight housing market in major metropolitan areas have been getting worse.

The mainstream discussion

The vast majority of mainstream discussion has touched on these issues, but with one addendum. It turns out large number of new immigrants are from India!

However, this is nothing new, India has been a steady source of immigration to Canada for quite a while now. So why is this demographic being so heavily focused on? Well, racism mainly, but to give a crumb of explanation to the reactionary viewpoint, Canada's immigration system is tooled to grant Permanent Resident status to immigrants seen as economically useful, so Indians have figured out how to game that system pretty effectively through our exploitative post-secondary education systems' International Student programs. Combining this with the sheer number of immigrants allowed through to hit the high immigration targets, we have a highly visible minority that is being seen as somehow "taking advantage of" the Canadian immigration system, which angers the fragile White Canadian.

Racism, but from the left!

Oh, but don't worry, some of these people will tell you, "I'm not racist! I'm actually a leftist! It's the government's fault! I just also agree there's too many Indians here!" which I guess solves the problem right? They said they're not racist after all! They've even said they're a leftist in their comment!

Sadly, no, it doesn't work like that. You don't get to just pickup gum off the sidewalk and say you're chewing it differently. Indian people are being unfairly scapegoated by our rightwing media not just as a side effect of failed small L liberal policies, but also as a full additional negative outcome. I could write a whole other post about the rise in reactionaries calling for "Deportation" as a disciplinary cudgel against immigrants.

So let's talk about some particular brain worms that I've seen being said on here.

There's too much of one demographic, what about multiculturalism?

Multiculturalism will not disappear just because there's a large number of people from one region unless the entire population of India migrated here. Or are you concerned about the white anglo dominated mainstream culture changing? 🀨

Their culture is backwards and conservative!

This is an orientalist line of thinking that plays into stereotypes to justify being exclusionary to anyone not from a White-approved culture. Sure, there will inevitably be reactionaries among the group, but that's not unique to any one culture or ethnicity. Canada would still be deeply reactionary without immigrants.

I would be saying the same thing if it were white immigrants

That's a nice thought, but the majority of our immigrants out here in reality are not white, which means you don't get to ignore the racial component to this issue. Racism is real and we live in a country deeply intertwined with white supremacy, so if you're trying to talk around racism you're siding with white supremacy.

We can't take care of Canadians, why should we take in more immigrants?

This one has some merit, but is still rooted in exclusionary nationalism. Our government should be providing the necessities of life for everyone welcomed in our borders. Choosing to exclude and other people based on a made up status isn't very leftist. Still think this is valid? Then you should be fighting to have the government actually support people instead of complaining there's too many Indian people here!

Immigrants are in the proletariat too

Let's go back to the idea of being taken advantage for a second. Our diploma mill colleges charge International Students 3x the cost they charge domestic students with no guarantees for student housing accommodations. Without any housing they're forced to find rental housing which is usually overcrowded, overpriced, and run by slumlords. To pay rent and school fees, they're then forced to take up precarious and exploitative work like gig work or under the table stuff.

Even if we accept the idea that these people have somehow taken advantage of the immigration system, does that discount them from being fellow members of the working class that are being exploited by the capitalist ruling class? Clearly not. So why are so-called leftist Canadians critical of both them and the government when we, as the working class, need to be united to address our issues?

Takeaways

Ultimately this is a call for self criticism and solidarity. Reddit is a very vitriolic and racist website, so I want you, the reader, to reflect and make sure that you're not engaging with ideas that alienate people looking for support in a community like ours. We need to show solidarity with the people that have come and will come to Canada and make sure we're fighting for the good of the working class, not excluding them because we think there's too many or they're too different or whatever. If you truly think the government is the problem, need to be fighting to provide support for immigrants instead of just blankly saying "close the doors".

If you find yourself disagreeing with something I've said, donate to something like The Naujawan Support Network's legal fund to prove you're not racist.

tl;dr - Don't be a fucking racist xenophobe or you'll get banned.

r/canadaleft Oct 17 '23

Sub Announcement CanadaLeft supports Palestinian liberation! Free Gaza! Free Palestine!

273 Upvotes

Upcoming actions

National March on Ottawa Saturday Nov 25 !


What you can do?

Donate!

If you can afford it, consider donating to the many charities doing heroic work in Gaza!

A full vetted list of charities by Build Palestine here

Take action!

Organize or join up with one of the many groups that are taking a stand against war, colonialism, genocide, and apartheid!


Originally prompted by the horrible news of the Israeli Occupation Forces bombing a hospital in Gaza, killing 500, we have seen the horrific murder of over 11,000 (and counting) civilians in Gaza and will no doubt see countless more due to the siege preventing food, water, medicine, fuel, electricity, internet, etc from reaching the populace. The CanadaLeft mod team reaffirms our unflinching solidarity and support for the people of Palestine and especially Gaza at this time. We are seeing yet another textbook case of a settler-colonial project genociding a people for their land the same way it has been happening on Turtle Island.

Thankfully, it's great to see the outpouring of support by the majority of users of /r/CanadaLeft, but we would like to make it very clear to the minority that we will not tolerate people spreading Zionist myths and lies about the origin of Israel, its countless war crimes, its Apartheid system, and its active genocide against Palestinian people.

If you are someone uninformed or someone naively "both sides"-ing this conflict we urge you to get educated. There's plenty of resources available, such as, Human Rights Watch's report on Israel's Apartheid, Abby Martin's coverage of Palestine: Palestine 101, Inside Palestine's Refugee Camps or the in-depth reading lists of Decolonize Palestine and the Palestinian Youth Movement.

If you want to stay informed on developments as they happen, you can follow:

This post will try to keep up to date with upcoming events!

πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Έ πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Έ End the genocide! End Apartheid! Free Palestine! πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Έ πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Έ

r/canadaleft Mar 01 '22

Sub Announcement Where We Stand on Russia, Ukraine, and NATO

244 Upvotes

The invasion of Ukraine has exposed deep crisis in the world today and leads the mod team to offer some clarification on our position and how the rules of the subreddit will be enforced.

We accept the line of β€œrevolutionary defeatism” perhaps best described by this statement which we co-sign in solidarity with other spaces:

Oppose all imperialist war! Pro-war and other accelerationist stances are anti-socialist and anti-worker and, as such, are forbidden in this sub. One misconception is that war weakens the bourgeoisie by making them more vulnerable. This is not correct. War can be thought of as a symptom of weaknesses in the capitalist system, but in general, war is the bourgeoisie's attempt to profit and avert capitalist crisis at the expense of the masses. In this case, it is competing bourgeois elements in Russia and in the NATO/US sphere of influence that are attempting to profit, while the people who suffer are the masses of Ukraine as well as of those countries whose labourers are effectively working for the benefit of the war machine.

The emphasis in opposing imperialism should always be on opposing your own empire! There is nothing particularly anti-imperialist about opposing the "enemy" country. Imperialists are more than capable of opposing rival empires. Our task, as socialists, should be to oppose our own empire at home. Since the vast majority of us live in NATO countries or in the US sphere of influence more generally, that means we should oppose NATO.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that the current conflict is simply an unprovoked war of aggression by evil Russia against helpless Ukraine and that NATO is simply a defensive alliance. The situation at hand is the culmination of decades' worth of much quieter conflicts between the US and Russian spheres of influence in post-Cold-War Eastern Europe.

It is not possible to understand the background of this war without acknowledging the US's attempts to surround Russia with a large coalition of pro-US states in Eastern Europe. However, this is also not a pro-Russia sub. We are anti-imperialist and anti-war. Russia's invasion of Ukraine did not happen in a vacuum, but it also should not be celebrated. We understand that there are plenty of liberals who conflate an anti-NATO stance with a pro-Russia one and who advocate NATO involvement and expansion, and the majority of our users here have, correctly, focused on opposition to NATO and to the US empire, but we still feel the need to reiterate that we do not support Russian aggression against Ukrainian civilians. And yes, cheering on blows against Azov Nazis is fine, but we can't exactly trust the right-wing Russian bourgeois government to be leading some genuine charge against fascism in Ukraine.


What this should look like for Canada: Do not send troops, do not send weapons, exit NATO, fast track refugees and maintain the process for other regions, call for immediate ceasefire and take an active role in diplomacy.

DO:

  • oppose NATO expansion and involvement in Eastern Europe.

  • oppose war (which hurts the masses and only really benefits certain elements of the bourgeoisie).

  • emphasize opposition to your own empire. - cheer on the destruction of the Azov Nazis.

DO NOT:

  • frame Russia as the sole perpetrator of this crisis.

  • celebrate Russia's actions.

  • portray the entire Ukrainian population as a country of Nazis.

r/canadaleft Aug 16 '24

Sub Announcement Discord link petition results

9 Upvotes

Hi comrades,

As you may have seen yesterday, we had a thread stickied petitioning the banning of semi-frequent poster /u/RevolutionCanada for posting discord links and the banning of people sharing Discord links overall. We put it to a poll and the overwhelming majority of respondents voted in favour of banning both.

There are a couple of issues that need to be addressed however:

  1. As pointed out by u/RevolutionCanada, they have not actually posted any Discord links in their post history on the sub (which I have verified) and despite having anti-communism on their official website, have not engaged in any of the bad faith sectarianism and trolling that we normally see as a violation of rule 5.
  2. Discord remains a popular communication app and users here have expressed interest in an official subreddit Discord, which would be a little ironic to do given banning Discord for being not great for organizing purposes.

Given the general reaction, I take it that users are not a big fan of their posts so I think rather than outright banning them for something they haven't done we'll ban them from making posts and allow them to continue to comment, which I think is a fair compromise.

Regarding Discord, there haven't been any thorough objections to banning linking random discords, so I think we'll proceed with that as a rule going forward, but we should have some discussion around suggestions of what to use instead. Matrix? Email lists? Facebook? Shouting on a street corner?

As always we're open to any feedback on these decisions.

r/canadaleft May 01 '24

Sub Announcement Happy International Workers' Day and 5 year anniversary to r/CanadaLeft (subreddit update)

31 Upvotes

Hey comrades, happy May Day!

Today seems like as good a time as any to make a "state of the sub" post since I missed CanadaLeft's real anniversary last month.

tl;dr We will remain based as hell; we need more mods; we want ideas on how to improve the subreddit.

Re-affirming what we stand for

CanadaLeft will continue to be:

  • anti-capitalist
  • anti-imperialist
  • anti-fascist
  • anti-racist
  • anti-settler colonialist
  • anti-z!onist
  • fiercely and unapologetically supportive of our trans and other 2SLGBTQIA+ comrades

Finding new goals

Over the past five years we've all been through a lot: a pandemic, economic uncertainty, wars breaking out, genocide, the list goes on. But through it all, amazing people are still working and organizing to make the world a better place. And this makes me ask, as a moderately sized internet forum, what can we do more to help?

My first thought goes to becoming a better platform for directing activist energy into protests, strikes, organizing, etc. But what do you think?

What we need

Between our glorious leader getting suspended, enshittification making reddit less appealing, and general life stuff, our mod team has slowed down a lot over the past year and which leaves us underpowered for a sub of our size. So we're asking for mod volunteers. If you're interested at all, just send a mod message and answer some questions!

r/canadaleft Jun 07 '23

Sub Announcement How should r/canadaleft participate in the June 12 protest against Reddit's API changes which kill third-party apps?

9 Upvotes

canadaleft has been on maintenance mode for the last year, but with news of Reddit's new changes (details below) it seems it might be good to do something. Any thoughts?

the best route is probs to go dark in solidarity and refer folks to the below as there's no plans to startup a canadaleft alt on another service.

Where What
https://www.hexbear.net formerly r chapo with a canadian community https://www.hexbear.net/c/canada)
Lemmy.ml Federated version of a reddit-like aggregator (not directly linking yet as they're struggling with capacity and requesting folx use other instances)
https://lemmygrad.ml marxist/marxist-leninist Lemmy instance
https://browse.feddit.de community browser for Lemmy instances
  • any others?

there's some stuff in the works to get the sub more active again, but no eta until irl stuff calms a bit for the mod team. of course any and all questions/concerns/criticism appreciated; apologies in advance for delayed response - everything will be read πŸ™

June 12 Details


What's going on?

A recent Reddit policy change threatens to kill many beloved third-party mobile apps, making a great many quality-of-life features not seen in the official mobile app permanently inaccessible to users.

A recent Reddit policy change will result in most (if not all) third-party mobile apps to cease functioning. Apps such as Apollo, Reddit is Fun, Narwhal, BaconReader, etc. will have to pay exorbitant prices to remain functional starting on July 1, 2023. The app developers have already come out and said they will be unable to do so.

Even if you're not a mobile user and don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing or accessing Reddit, such as Reddit Enhancement Suite, the use of the old.reddit.com browser interface, and folks with accessibility requirements such as those who are visually impaired.

This isn't only a problem on the user level: many subreddit moderators depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free.

What's the plan?

On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This isn't something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love.

The two-day blackout isn't the goal, and it isn't the end. Should things reach the 14th with no sign of Reddit choosing to fix what they've broken, we'll use the community and buzz we've built between then and now as a tool for further action.

What can you do?

  1. Complain. Message the mods of /r/reddit.com, who are the admins of the site: message /u/reddit: submit a support request: comment in relevant threads on /r/reddit, such as this one, leave a negative review on their official iOS or Android app- and sign your username in support to this post.
  2. Spread the word. Rabble-rouse on related subreddits. Meme it up, make it spicy. Bitch about it to your cat. Suggest anyone you know who moderates a subreddit join us at at /r/ModCoord - but please don't pester mods you don't know by simply spamming their modmail.
  3. Boycott and spread the word...to Reddit's competition! Stay off Reddit entirely on June 12th through the 13th- instead, take to your favorite non-Reddit platform of choice and make some noise in support!
  4. Don't be a jerk. As upsetting this may be, threats, profanity and vandalism will be worse than useless in getting people on our side. Please make every effort to be as restrained, polite, reasonable and law-abiding as possible.

r/canadaleft Sep 14 '20

Sub Announcement πŸ₯³ YOU'RE INVITED to the first Canadaleft/IDC conference: the Super Dialectacular Spectacular - Ideas to Save the World πŸ’‘ Featuring top leftists in a wholesome battle of ideas Canadaleft/IDC will organize around to save the world or vibe trying ✊

36 Upvotes

r/canadaleft Mar 17 '21

Sub Announcement πŸ”₯ Harbinger's Spring Membership Drive, Niki Ashton Finally Meets with Corbyn and much more! It's the State of the Left: March 17th to 24th, 2021

13 Upvotes

As Canadians rise against the injustices of capitalism, there are many opportunities to connect with comrades to provide material support through time, money, and general solidarity. Please comment with events or tasks below for promotion and support, or DM the mods to be included in this or future posts

In our current state of emergency, you can most easily find support through a Facebook or Google search for "buy nothing <community name>", "mutual aid <community name>", and/or "care mongering <community name>". Where no supports exist, we encourage you to create them (we can help).

Top Three Things to Do This Week

πŸ“’ Join the Harbinger Media Network's Spring Membership Drive for as little as $3/mo to support socialist podcasts and expand the network with three new shows! From Alberta Advantage to Tech Won't Save us, Harbinger offers the most impressive slate of socialist perspective in Canada.

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Saturday, March 20th at 1pm ET join Jeremy Corbyn & Niki Ashton live in conversation as they discuss how can we build a strong progressive politics.

🏨 Burnaby, BC: Join Markiel Simpson's young team of eco-socialists to take back the riding of Burnaby North-Seymour from the Liberals. He just announced his campaign and has the endorsement of NDP comrades like Matthew Green and Green leaders like Dr. Amita Kuttner.

Featured Leftist:

πŸ“Ί Sweater Weather is a video and audio podcast about Canadian culture, politics, and economics from a socialist perspective, hosted and produced by Aaron Giovannone (Jacobin, Maclean's, Passage, etc.).


The List (A Work in Progress):

πŸ“Ί = Media | πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ = Meeting | 🀝 = Mutual Aid | πŸ“ž = Phone Zap | ✊ = Rally

National:

✊ On Friday, March 19th join Fridays for Future and thousands (maybe millions) others in a climate strike to demand climate justice.

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Thursday, March 25th at 5pm ET Join Passage Magazine for a conversation with NDP MP Matthew Green and Paris Marx on public ownership in the Canadian economy.

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Thursday, March 25th at 7pm ET Writer and activist Nora Loreto presents her new book, "Take Back the Fight", in conversation with feminist labour activist Bilan Arte.

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Thursday, March 25th at 7pm ET Join Spring Magazine where they will explore the principles of socialist writing, what that looks like in the 21st century, the importance of ideas and debates to our movement, and how writing enables us to effect social change.

πŸ“ž On Saturday March 27 at 2pm ET join leaders from Grassy Narrows to kickoff a virtual campaign: https://freegrassy.net/compensation-for-all-virtual-campaign-launch

Atlantic:

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Tuesday, March 23 at 5:30 PM ET Join in the next organizing meeting of the Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign for Halifax. We'll be planning our next actions in the fight for a higher minimum wage, paid sick leave, and stronger rights for all workers.

Ontario:

πŸ“ž On Sunday, March 21st at 1pm ET join the SuppressTheVirusNow Coalition in a phone zap directed at Ontario Conservative Party donors to ask them to place pressure on their party to recognize the airborne spread of COVID, and to implement necessary protective measures towards keeping us all safe.

🀝 DAVENPORT, ON: Socialist organizer of Davenport Mutual Aid, Nahum Mann, will be attempting to take the Liberal's most flippable seat in Davenport and will need your help to do it. Team Nahum is looking to train 10 comrades at http://www.nahum.ca to not just run his campaign, but build templates and tools for all socialist campaigns moving forward.

Alberta:

🀝 Edmonton, AB: Mutual Aid Edmonton is building tiny homes for unhoused folk in Edmonton, please support them with your time or money however possible.

BC:

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Friday, March 19th at 2pm ET Explore the relationship between grassroots climate justice activism and government policy, and how advocacy can translate into action. Join the UBC Sustainability initiative for this session, we will explore the principles of socialist writing, what that looks like in the 21st century, the importance of ideas and debates to our movement, and how writing enables us to effect social change.

🀝 Vancouver, BC: Please join the Vancouver Tenants Union to partner with a collective of renters and comrades fighting for a more affordable city.

Is something missing? Please let us know.


πŸ™‹β€β™€οΈπŸ™‹β€β™‚οΈ About Us: canadaleft is a project from Justice Internationale, a flat, transpartisan collective which believes a network of unions and mutual aid will allow workers to disrupt the status quo and decolonize & dismantle the capitalist state. Join us today and get started on projects ranging from mutual aid and planning local chapters, to aiding socialist MPs with media creation and finding support for your own project - or dm the mods to get access to an invite only slack for organizers of all affiliations to unite left action.


This list is inspired by the best newsletter in Canada, available to patreons of Alberta Advantage.

r/canadaleft Mar 10 '21

Sub Announcement State of the Left: March 10th to 17th, 2021

16 Upvotes

As Canadians rise against the injustices of capitalism, there are many opportunities to connect with comrades to provide material support through time, money, and general solidarity. Please comment with events or tasks below for promotion and support, or DM the mods to be included in this or future posts

Top Three

🚧 ONTARIO: The Land Defenders of 1492 Land Back Lane stopped a housing development project to raise awareness of the Ontario government's aggressive development of Indigenous land. The Land Defenders have faced continued assaults and harassment by the OPP and are regularly in need of goods which you can find on their Twitter page, and funding to support their legal defense here.

🍊 DAVENPORT, ONTARIO: Socialist organizer of Davenport Mutual Aid, Nahum Mann, will be attempting to take the Liberal's most flippable seat in Davenport and will need your help to do it. Team Nahum is looking to train 10 comrades at http://www.nahum.ca to not just run his campaign, but build templates and tools for all socialist campaigns moving forward.

🏨 VANCOUVER, BC: Unite Here 40 is defending workers facing off against a hotel industry trying to fire long-time workers instead of having to recall them at their old wages. This is a tactic that will be tried across the country and we need to build defenses against it. Volunteer shifts are short and easy, only 2-4 hours a week of simple tasks you can do online. Please DM the poster for contact info.

Featured Leftist:

πŸ“Ί Sweater Weather is a video and audio podcast about Canadian culture, politics, and economics from a socialist perspective, hosted and produced by Aaron Giovannone (Jacobin, Maclean's, Passage, etc.).


The List (A Work in Progress):

πŸ“Ί = Media | πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ = Meeting | 🀝 = Mutual Aid | πŸ“ž = Phone Zap | ✊ = Rally

National:

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Friday, March 12th at 7:30pm ET join a conversation with Harsha Walia and Souheil Benslimane on how can we work toward prison abolishment and ask: What role does mutual aid play in meeting the immediate needs of those who’ve been imprisoned? and how we can take on the racist and increasingly authoritarian injustice system?

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Monday, March 15th at 7pm ET join Spring Magazine for a discussion on how we can better support the decent work movement and fight the bosses.

✊ On Friday, March 19th join Fridays for Future and thousands (maybe millions) others in a climate strike to demand climate justice.

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Friday, March 19th at 530pm ET join Beyond the Police state: a conversation with Desmond Cole and Robyn Maynard.

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Saturday, March 20th at 1pm ET join Jeremy Corbyn & Niki Ashton live in conversation as they discuss how can we build a strong progressive politics.

πŸ“ž On Saturday March 27 at 2pm ET join leaders from Grassy Narrows to kickoff a virtual campaign: https://freegrassy.net/compensation-for-all-virtual-campaign-launch

Quebec:

✊ On Monday, March 15 at 5pm ET join the 25th International Day Against Police Brutality demonstration in Montreal

Alberta:

🀝 Mutual Aid Edmonton is building tiny homes for unhoused folk in Edmonton, please support them with your time or money however possible.

BC:

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Sunday, March 14th The Vancouver Tenants Union will be hosting a General Meeting. Please join one of the most powerful tenant unions in Canada to be sent the link and details of the meeting.

Is something missing? Please let us know.


πŸ™‹β€β™€οΈπŸ™‹β€β™‚οΈ About Us: canadaleft is a project from Justice Internationale, a flat, transpartisan collective which believes a network of unions and mutual aid will allow workers to disrupt the status quo and decolonize & dismantle the capitalist state. Join us today and get started on projects ranging from mutual aid and planning local chapters, to aiding socialist MPs with media creation and finding support for your own project - or dm the mods to get access to an invite only slack for organizers of all affiliations to unite left action.


This list is inspired by the best newsletter in Canada, available to patreons of Alberta Advantage.

r/canadaleft Mar 24 '21

Sub Announcement 🧹 Clear your Thursday and Nationalize All the Things! It's the State of the Left for Wednesday, March 23rd - Wednesday March 31st!

7 Upvotes

As Canadians rise against the injustices of capitalism, there are many opportunities to connect with comrades to provide material support through time, money, and general solidarity. Please comment with events or tasks below for promotion and support, or DM the mods to be included in this or future posts

In our current state of emergency, you can most easily find support through a Facebook or Google search for "buy nothing <community name>", "mutual aid <community name>", and/or "care mongering <community name>". Where no supports exist, we encourage you to create them (we can help).

Top Three Things to Do This Week

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Sunday, March 28th @ 1PM ET Join Horizon Ottawa and organizers from around the world to learn how the municipalist movement is taking power from the 1% and giving it to the people. Organizers from Barcelona and other regions will discuss how municipalism builds power and disrupts the status quo, don't miss it!

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Thursday, March 25th at 5pm ET Join Passage Magazine for a conversation with NDP MP Matthew Green and Paris Marx on public ownership in the Canadian economy and learn how we can start building toward a better, planned economy today.

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Thursday, March 25th at 7pm ET Join writer and activist Nora Loreto in a presentation of her new book, "Take Back the Fight", in conversation with feminist labour activist Bilan Arte. Learn how neoliberalism has eroded the feminist movement and how we can reignite organizing for fairness and equality today.

Featured Leftist:

πŸ“Ί Sweater Weather is a video and audio podcast about Canadian culture, politics, and economics from a socialist perspective, hosted and produced by Aaron Giovannone (Jacobin, Maclean's, Passage, etc.).


The List (A Work in Progress):

πŸ“Ί = Media | πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ = Meeting | 🀝 = Mutual Aid | πŸ“ž = Phone Zap | ✊ = Rally

National:

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Thursday, March 25th at 1pm ET Join Harsha Walia for an examination of the Rise of Racist Nationalism in North America: Borders, Capitalism, and the Migration Crisis.

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Thursday, March 25th at 7pm ET Join Spring Magazine where they will explore the principles of socialist writing, what that looks like in the 21st century, the importance of ideas and debates to our movement, and how writing enables us to effect social change.

πŸ“ž On Saturday March 27 at 2pm ET join leaders from Grassy Narrows to kickoff a virtual campaign: https://freegrassy.net/compensation-for-all-virtual-campaign-launch

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘§ On Wednesday, March 31st at 7pm ET Join Migrant Workers Alliance for Change for a practical virtual educational on migrant rights. Moderator Syed Hussan will be leading the discussion with speakers Kit Andres, Diana Da Silva and Sarom Rho. COVID-19 has revealed and exacerbated existing inequalities in our society. Migrant and undocumented workers have faced immense levels of exploitation, denied emergency supports and healthcare and yet have been deemed essential. In response, a cross-country movement of migrants has begun to organize from farms to factories to colleges and the streets.

Atlantic:

🀝 HALIFAX, NS: Halifax Mutual Aid is a group of people committed to taking action against houselessness in Halifax by building small crisis shelters for those who need them, please support their work however possible.

Ontario:

πŸ“ž On Wednesday, March 31st at 7pm ET join Mutual Aid Katarokwi-Kingston to ask, what are Indigenous mutual aid frameworks? How can people navigate and get involved in community organizing in decolonial and anti-colonial ways in practice? How do our relationships shape important organizing conversations? This talk will engage these questions and issues around the roots of mutual aid and enduring Indigenous influences, cultural literacy, perils of co-optation and ways to advance collective good and honour Indigenous people, Turtle Island and all our relations.

🍊 DAVENPORT, ON: Socialist organizer of Davenport Mutual Aid, Nahum Mann, will be attempting to take the Liberal's most flippable seat in Davenport and need syour help to do it. Team Nahum is looking to train 10 comrades at http://www.nahum.ca to not just run his campaign, but build templates and tools for all socialist campaigns moving forward.

Alberta:

🀝 Edmonton, AB: Mutual Aid Edmonton is building tiny homes for unhoused folk in Edmonton, please support them with your time or money however possible.

BC:

🍊 Burnaby, BC: Join Markiel Simpson's young team of eco-socialists to take back the riding of Burnaby North-Seymour from the Liberals. He recently announced his campaign and has the endorsement of NDP comrades like Matthew Green and Green leaders like Dr. Amita Kuttner.

🀝 Vancouver, BC: Please join the Vancouver Tenants Union to partner with a collective of renters and comrades fighting for a more affordable city.

Is something missing? Please let us know.


πŸ™‹β€β™€οΈπŸ™‹β€β™‚οΈ About Us: canadaleft is a project from Justice Internationale, a flat, transpartisan collective which believes a network of unions and mutual aid will allow workers to disrupt the status quo and decolonize & dismantle the capitalist state. Join us today and get started on projects ranging from mutual aid and planning local chapters, to aiding socialist MPs with media creation and finding support for your own project - or dm the mods to get access to an invite only slack for organizers of all affiliations to unite left action.


This list is inspired by the best newsletter in Canada, available to patreons of Alberta Advantage.

r/canadaleft Oct 03 '20

Sub Announcement πŸ”₯ JOIN THE LEFTIST IDEAS TO SAVE THE WORLD CONFERENCE ON TWITCH.TV/THEIDC, TODAY @ 1-7PMEST πŸ”₯ - PRESENTED BY CANADALEFT/IDC **NOW INCLUDING MUMILAAQ QAQQAQ

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19 Upvotes

r/canadaleft May 07 '20

Sub Announcement We Need You! Announcing the Online Assembly of the International Department of Citizenship, as inspired by r/Canadaleft's 2019 State of the Left Survey

14 Upvotes

TLDR: We believe citizens should control the means of production in a democratic and decentralized world. We're a flat collective with no bosses and we need your help to bring that better world to life. Join us. See https://link.medium.com/eRUVeSobF5 for details and application.


Full:

Hey Fam,

Last year's State of the Left survey revealed deep dissatisfaction with the current state of Canada's left and carried many calls to action around uniting the Canadian left, acting strategically as a collective, and creating an easily accessible entry point to the left.

To this day one of the most frequent questions I get is, "How do I get involved, how do I make a difference?"

For too long the popular answer has been to push people toward electoral politics and building temporary groups around individual political campaigns instead of long-term collective action like tenant unions which provide permanent advocacy or groups like Food Not Bombs which keep community gardens alive and our poorest fed.

We're aiming to change that with IDC1, the online assembly of the International Department of Citizenship. We acknowledge direct action in local communities is the best way to accomplish this, but COVID-19 has demonstrated the ability to use online collaboration to organize and create a coordinating body to create the tools, templates, and resources necessary promote and empower local action.

With only the first chapter of COVID-19 causing such deep economic impact, it's clear we're about to face crippling austerity and an extraordinary crisis as the bourgeoisie seek to maintain and expand their interest. As they collectivize their efforts via lobbyists, forums, and trade groups, we too must unite and establish common demands and a strategic vision.

We believe that revolution is necessary to advance the human condition, and we know we must first build a parallel infrastructure before we tear down the old. If we wish to create something different than the norm, we must do so in structures that demand direct democracy and do away with the hierarchical structures that have corrupted all that came before us. As such, IDC1 is a flat collective with no boss to tell you what to do, but instead a team to directly support and encourage you to undertake the action you know to be most appropriate - while offering a variety of suggestions if you're not ready to lead an action yourself. There is no minimum time commitment and no experience is required, we're a relaxed leftist collective which will allow you to build your network and political understanding without pressure or judgement.

We encourage all members to initiate their own projects, and where we suggest immediate focus for those unsure of where to start is:

  1. Channel building - Communications Committee
    Class awareness and awareness of the root cause of ongoing issues is at disturbing low. As such we aim to create a variety of social media channels to effectively funnel a wide range of target audiences through awareness > agitation > education > organization. r/Canadaleft reached 24k regular readers within a year, how many can we reach if we target more mainstream audiences?

  2. Ally Awareness - Research & Development Committee
    We need a full list of all mutual aid groups bettering their communities so we may promote them across our channels and give a full answer to the question, "How do I get involved, how do I make a difference?". We are not here to compete, but to amplify and refer. If no services exist locally, we'll help you set up key ones.

  3. IDC1 Improvement - Operations Committee
    We want to ensure you are getting maximum value from your time with us and strive to ensure the systems we create are always live and improving, and open sourced so all may benefit from our learning. You will be welcomed with a Skype/Discord/Signal/Phone call to explore your goals and concerns, with suggestions on how we might support your skill set or broader aspirations.

2020 has been one hell of a year, and we hope to make it all the more memorable, but this time for the right reasons.

We need you. Join us and start building a better world today.


More details and the application form: https://link.medium.com/eRUVeSobF5.

Our Website: http://www.joinidc.co

Think you can do better? You can. Please reach out to share what you're working on and we'll do what we can to support and amplify ✊


Projects which inspired this:

/r/thebakery

The NYC Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council (MACC)

Occupy

r/canadaleft May 29 '20

Sub Announcement Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) Thread

6 Upvotes

IDC1 is building Workerpedia.co to centralize leftist arguments to common questions and concerns and we need your help.

We'd appreciate any support you can provide in terms of suggesting questions and answers in this thread via a comment, or even just questions you'd like help answering.

Example article: Isn't the Liberal Party of Canada a leftist party?

We're in the early days of the project, so general feedback is welcome too.

If you don't want to comment in this thread, feel free to use our article suggestion form @ workerpedia.co/contribute

We are not actively promoting this tool until we have around 100 original articles and would appreciate your help in creating a comprehensive resource for all leftists, not just Canadians. How-to articles and guides like "How do I Unionize" or "How to protest safely" would be welcomed too.

By collaborating, we can create ideal educational content while reducing the labor all fellow workers put into responding to common questions or myths. Time better spent agitating, educating, and organizing ✊


About IDC1, We're a leftist organizing body dedicated to coordinating and supporting citizen projects which lay the local groundwork for revolution.

We operate from a place of love for all and a sense of urgency in affecting real change which achieves our collective potential. We believe workers should control the means of production in a democratic and decentralized world and invite you to join our hierarchy-free collective as we build tools and communities.

Everything we produce is open source, you may copy and create your own tool based off of workerpedia.co here: https://github.com/the-idc/hugo-theme-workerpedia

r/canadaleft Jul 18 '19

Sub Announcement A Community Update

6 Upvotes

Hi all,

To help foster this community, we will start doing a Policy Idea Thursday thread. It will be a designated place Canadian leftist can come to debate what’s been in the news that week, or the best prospects of a Green New Deal, the divide between Green and NDP, etc. Post a news article in the comments and expect discussion.

Next, we are going to do a Content Creators Sunday thread. The primary purpose of this sub is to foster more and more Canadian leftist content. The thread will be a place for fellow content creators to come together and discuss industry best practices, find like-minded collaborators, and dissect each other’s work.

Flairs are now going to be open for you to make your own. We thought about making a couple set flairs, but it’s more in-line with this sub to hand you the paint-brush, so to speak.

Lastly, if you are posting your Original Content to this sub, we want to support you. Please message either me or u/rbdk01 to get your OC stickied to the sub. We can only do one at a time, so be realistic with us.

We are super happy to see this community growing and coming into it's own. Let's do our best to support each other moving forward.