The Red Review

The Red Review | Issue #33 (June 2026)

The Red Review — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:36:19 GMT

Conference Proclaims a New Socialist Movement!

By Barry Weisleder

Nearly four hundred people, with over one hundred attending in-person in Toronto, and many more on-line across the country, gave birth to a new Socialist Movement (SM) at a day-long conference on May 24, 2026. It was the inadvertent product of two sequential socialist campaigns for the federal New Democratic Party leadership. Both bids were bureaucratically blocked by party controllers in 2025/2026, resulting in a bogus election that anointed the slightly left-of-center social democrat Avi Lewis. In the course of the campaign, thousands of NDP members endorsed and financially backed the comprehensive ‘Capitalism Can’t be Fixed’ policy platform espoused by renowned anti-imperialist author Yves Engler, and star political organizer Bianca Mugyenyi.

By Julius Arscott, NUPGE delegate

Over 2,250 delegates representing workers across the country attended the triennial Canadian Labour Congress convention, May 11-15, in Winnipeg. The convention acclaimed an uncontested slate of very uninspiring incumbent top officers. UNIFOR, Canada’s largest private sector union, was absent as it has not been affiliated with the house of labour since 2018 due to a dispute over inter-union member ‘raiding’. Palestine solidarity activists, many active with Labour for Palestine (L4P), were prominently present. Heading into the convention, L4P advanced the “Hot Cargo” campaign where workers refuse to handle Israeli or Israel-bound weapons and cargo. They urged the CLC to break ties with Israel’s Histadrut, a so-called labour central that has been complicit in genocide and colonization in Palestine since the 1920s.

By John Wilson

On April 18th, 300 tenants from across the GTA gathered to found the Toronto Tenant Union (TTU). Its mission: “to fight hikes, win housing justice, and protect our homes.” Two of TTU’s largest components, the York South-West Tenant Union (YSWTU) and Toronto Climate Justice have strong track records in taking militant action against real estate investment trusts (REITS), corporate landlords, private equity firms and serial “renovictors” and winning victories. In 2023-24, YSWTU organized the largest rent action in Toronto’s history with 500 tenants striking for nearly 16 months against Dream Unlimited and Barney River Investments. Victory was reached with lower rents, compensation to reflect the significant repair backlog and, unprecedentedly, the YSWTU was made the official liaison between the tenant association and the landlord.

By Gary Porter

Ottawa is launching Canada’s first so-called national sovereign wealth fund—the Canada Strong Fund. According to Mark Carney, it is about making sure that the returns, if any, from Build Canada Strong are shared widely. The mission, according to the Department of Finance, is to give Canadians a perceived direct stake in (but no control over) the Build Canada agenda. Clearly, it is a government of Canada fund – in other words, an instrument of the capitalist state. The fund will invest in strategic projects and companies, alongside other investors—with a clear objective to achieve commercial returns to build the wealth of Canadian billionaires. This is how the Canada Strong Fund will work: Initially, the government will borrow the initial $25 billion over 3 years, on a cash basis, to seed the Canada Strong Fund.

By Yves Engler

We won. But please don’t ask exactly what. For the foreseeable future a major Canadian city is set to be a central node in linking global finance to arms production. Montreal, Toronto, or whichever city ‘wins’ hosting rights for the global war bank will become a symbol of militarism for decades to come. Last month Canada was formally selected to host a new multilateral war bank. It’s now up to the federal government to decide which city will host the Defense, Security and Resilience Bank. The DSRB will further marry investment agencies and major banks to arms producers. One aim of the multilateral financial institution is to draw the major commercial banks and large investment agencies, like the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, into closer ties with the arms industry.

By Gary Porter

The history of the Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) is a story of colossal ambition, depicting the shift from a Cold War-era energy project to the most controversial, destructive and expensive infrastructure endeavor in Canadian history. The original 1,150 km pipeline was built in a record 30 months, following the major Leduc oil strike in 1947. It was seen as a strategic necessity during the Korean War to move crude from Alberta to refineries in Burnaby, BC, and Washington State. The first oil arrived at Burnaby on October 17, 1953. By the early 2000s, the original line was full. Kinder Morgan proposed the expansion in 2012 to increase capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day. However, the project faced fierce opposition from environmental groups and Indigenous communities over oil spills and tanker traffic, leading to years of legal battles and policy changes.

By Richard Roys

In early 2023, Quebec’s political class erupted in indignation over comments made by Amira Elghawaby, newly appointed by Ottawa as Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. Her offense was straightforward: she suggested that many Quebecers seemed disturbingly indifferent to the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in the province. What followed was immediate, furious, and entirely predictable. Rather than treat her remarks as an invitation to reflect on the social reality of racism in Quebec, the political and media establishment transformed them into a national affront. The terms of the debate were rapidly reduced to an absurd binary: either one stood with Elghawaby and, by extension, with Ottawa, or one stood with Quebec. In that framework, there could be no nuance, no complexity, no space for anyone attempting to hold together two basic truths at once:

Conference Proclaims a New Socialist Movement!

The Red Review — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:14:31 GMT

It was the inadvertent product of two sequential socialist campaigns for the federal New Democratic Party leadership. Both bids were bureaucratically blocked by party controllers in 2025/2026, resulting in a bogus election that anointed the slightly left-of-center social democrat Avi Lewis. In the course of the campaign, thousands of NDP members endorsed and financially backed the comprehensive ‘Capitalism Can’t be Fixed’ policy platform espoused by renowned anti-imperialist author Yves Engler, and star political organizer Bianca Mugyenyi.

In addition to Yves and Bianca, featured speakers at the Toronto conference included: Clayton Thomas-Muller, Dimitri Lascaris, Tamara Lorincz, Sara Rasikh, Ghada Sasa, Kevin MacKay, Seatle-based Kshama Sawant, and this writer. Animated plenary and workshops discussed: ‘The Political Moment: War, Capitalism and Resistance’, and ‘Strategy and Pathways Forward’. Indigenous activist Thomas-Muller opened the gathering with a powerful discourse on ‘Anti-colonialism and Extractivism.’

Sessions involving some ten breakout groups, both on-line and in-person, gave feedback to a draft Statement of Unity, and entertained proposals for political initiatives.

What is the pathway forward to win a majority for class struggle politics? Campaign-building! Campaigns can comprise stopping a pipeline, halting health care cuts, freezing rents, ending the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, removing Canada from NATO and NORAD, and mobilizing to keep imperialist hands-off Cuba, Venezuela and Iran.

Several exciting, concrete ideas emerged, such as a “Carnival Against Capitalism” counter- conference and protest at the Global Investments Summit in Toronto in mid-September. In addition the Socialist Movement could field a few candidates in the upcoming municipal elections -- an opportunity to take the Capitalism Can’t be Fixed policy book to a wider local audience – in an arena where the NDP does not run.

An immediate task facing the SM is to organize a Convention to launch the Movement as a new fighting organization. Why now? Because capitalism can’t be fixed. The world is in peril. Long ago the NDP abandoned the terrain of system change. A new movement/party is needed to fill the vacuum to the left of the NDP, and to significantly improve the chances of survival for humanity and nature.

While the major parties cater to climate criminals, financial elites and war profiteers, socialists aim to work alongside anti-capitalist, social justice and anti-imperialist fighters, including those in the ranks of the NDP and other organizations.

How should the new SM organize itself? The Conference made no firm decisions, but it paved the way forward. Working committees of volunteers from across the country will shortly be convened. A steering committee, made up of the co-chairs of these committees, will coordinate protest campaigns, regional organizing, political education, fund raising, and public events, including the preparation of the official SM convention.

The aim is to build democratic, participatory structures and collective leadership – from the ground up. The founding convention of the Socialist Movement, with the ratification of the Policy book and the adoption of a constitution, is likely to occur this year.

Many participants envision the movement becoming a political party, while foremost still being an insurgent force on the streets and in work places, committed to the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a cooperative commonwealth.

CLC 2026 Convention Breaks with Zionist Histadrut

The Red Review — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:11:22 GMT

Palestine solidarity activists, many active with Labour for Palestine (L4P), were prominently present.

Heading into the convention, L4P advanced the “Hot Cargo” campaign where workers refuse to handle Israeli or Israel-bound weapons and cargo. They urged the CLC to break ties with Israel’s Histadrut, a so-called labour central that has been complicit in genocide and colonization in Palestine since the 1920s. Resolutions calling for “Hot Cargo” measures were adopted at union and provincial federation conventions. Zionists agitated across the corporate media to exert pressure on the CLC Resolutions Committee and the Canada Council, the CLC’s leading body. As a result, the Hot Cargo resolution—including language calling for an end to relations with the Histadrut—was tagged with a ‘non-concurrence’ designation, effectively killing debate. The main Zionist argument claimed the CLC cannot order affiliates to take action—a straw man if ever there was one as similar resolutions are routinely submitted.

L4P led the fight for democracy. Activists collected over 4,500 signatures from union members via an online petition asking the Canada Council to grant concurrence. The resolution was endorsed by 11 union bodies, including NUPGE (the CLC’s largest component), the Ontario Federation of Labour, CUPW, and many labour councils. Still, it was denied concurrence.

Through persistent organizing and navigating complex procedural rules, delegates overwhelmingly supported adding language to cut ties with Histadrut. Delegates then successfully amended a status quo Palestine solidarity resolution initiated by the Canada Council to include the same demand which gained 80 - 90% support after open debate.

The CLC delegates voted overwhelmingly for the amended resolution, thus cutting ties with the Histadrut—a labour body complicit in anti-Palestinian colonization since the 1920s. While not gaining a “Hot Cargo” declaration, this historic victory mirrors labour’s stance during South African apartheid. It could not have happened without the tireless work of L4P activists in unions, workplaces, and on the convention floor.

A resolution on Cuba was adopted with overwhelming support. Dany Tur de la Concepción, Deputy Head of Mission of the Cuban Embassy in Canada, was introduced to delegates and welcomed with tremendous applause. The adopted resolution calls on the CLC to demand Canada take immediate action to support the Cuban people, exert diplomatic efforts to end the U.S. blockade on oil and other vital resources, and publicly reaffirm Canada’s commitment to sovereignty, non-intervention, and self-determination. The CLC committed to undertake solidarity campaigns with Cuban workers and unions, make a financial contribution to the Canadian Network on Cuba, and encourage affiliates to build solidarity with the Cuban people.

While this international solidarity is encouraging, delegate attempts to launch mass action, including general strikes, against back-to-work legislation and Carney’s austerity agenda were thwarted by the leadership.

Days after the convention, reports surfaced that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government is exploring changes to the federal Labour code to designate Build Canada projects as an ‘essential service’ and banning federal public sector workers and those in ‘emergency’ economic areas from going on strike. This attack can only be defeated by a mass mobilization led by organized labour, not quiet government lobbying.

The “Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed” campaign booth attracted many friendly delegates. It became a hub for leftist activists, receiving several hundred dollars in booklet and button sales and gathering scores of new contacts.

New Toronto Tenant Union takes on Financialized Landlords

The Red Review — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:08:49 GMT

On April 18th, 300 tenants from across the GTA gathered to found the Toronto Tenant Union (TTU). Its mission: “to fight hikes, win housing justice, and protect our homes.”

Two of TTU’s largest components, the York South-West Tenant Union (YSWTU) and Toronto Climate Justice have strong track records in taking militant action against real estate investment trusts (REITS), corporate landlords, private equity firms and serial “renovictors” and winning victories..

In 2023-24, YSWTU organized the largest rent action in Toronto’s history with 500 tenants striking for nearly 16 months against Dream Unlimited and Barney River Investments. Victory was reached with lower rents, compensation to reflect the significant repair backlog and, unprecedentedly, the YSWTU was made the official liaison between the tenant association and the landlord.

Ricardo Tranjan, Ontario Research Director at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of The Tenant Class reports in Canadian Dimension that

Québec has two province-wide tenant coalitions—the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) and the Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ)—both formed in the late-1970s in a manner very similar to that of the Toronto Tenant Union. Notably, the Québec media treats these groups as the primary political interlocutors for tenants, much as it treats labour unions in economic development and employment matters.

In Toronto where almost 50 percent of the population rents their home, tenant groups are seldom allowed to articulate their collective political stances. Sappy stories of poor tenants and apolitical policy debates are tiresome and unhelpful. We are much better served by honest political discussions about the inherently conflictual nature of land and the housing built on it.

The TTU is a new, democratic, and unapologetically political voice in housing debates. If given the airtime it deserves, the union can elevate clear-eyed, grounded stances that cut through the fog of wonky debates.

TTU could provide an alternative analysis to the pro-corporate drivel that dominates housing “discussions”. Not surprisingly, none of the capitalist parties have even mentioned the possible role of the public sector. They’re too busy giving tax breaks, only to those that don’t need them. The HST exemption for first-time buyers which will mainly enable sellers and contractors to raise prices yet again, is an example. They do nothing to stop speculation in the real estate market, which is fine with their cronies and donors in the private sector. No restrictions on the parasites buying as many units as they can (often on credit) and then recovering their costs and more with extortionate rents.

In fact, massive housing projects have only been built by the public sector, as with post-war Britain’s first Labour government, and in Venezuela (3 million good quality units) under the Chavez government.

The distribution of Housing is really a class problem. 173 years ago, Friedrich Engels commented that the private sector has no solution to the housing problem and no interest in finding one.

But Capitalism Can’t be Fixed (CCbF), a cross country movement formed by volunteers from the two socialist campaigns for federal NDP leader has demands that would lead in the direction of eliminating the private sector from housing. Here is what they say in the section of the program entitled Housing For All:

“Under Canadian and international law, access to adequate housing is a human right. Despite this, our basic need for shelter has turned into a vehicle for financial extraction, creating a severe housing crisis that renders housing unaffordable and in short supply. Tens of thousands of Canadians live unhoused across the nation, while millions pay exploitive rents beyond their means…. The government must declare a state of emergency over housing to gain the authority to ensure housing serves the public good instead of profit maximization. Our imperative is to build a de-commodified housing sector that sets the floor for affordability and quality. The intention is for homes to the people who live in and maintain them.

Convert 200,000 REIT Properties Into Housing Co-operatives

For a Public Housing Revolution to annually build 200,000 units of social and co-op housing each year, with a prioritization of vulnerable populations such as people experiencing homelessness, refugees, domestic abuse survivors, people with disabilities and students.”

Accomplishing all this may be a long and arduous struggle but it can be done.

All of us on the left should support the new Toronto Tenant Union and Capitalism Can’t be Fixed movement and be ready to join solidarity actions with them, as a start.

CANADA STRONG FUND, A Boondoggle to Transfer Risk from Billionaires to Workers

The Red Review — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:05:51 GMT

Initially, the government will borrow the initial $25 billion over 3 years, on a cash basis, to seed the Canada Strong Fund. This will be owed to the banks and to institutional investors. They will gain interest annually from our taxes.

This is completely different from other major sovereign funds which are based on revenue derived by government usually from royalties taken from natural resource extraction. This is how the sovereign funds of the Arab monarchies, and from Norway and Alberta, were created. Those funds came from funds taken by the state from billionaires, with no interest obligations -- not borrowed from the capitalist class, with decades of interest owed back to them.

The Fund will “change” over time, both from the returns that it generates, and the losses it absorbs, and via other assets that the government may allocate to it. One source of future funds will be the proceeds of the sale of publically owned assets, such as airports. Such sales are typically well below market value, often going to US billionaires, and always result in higher prices and inferior service. This is where the profit arises. From infrastructure to advanced manufacturing, to energy, and to mining, the Fund will be mandated to deliver market-rate returns “for Canadians” across the economy.

Leading Canadian companies will be induced to undertake large risky projects in energy, transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, and in the future economy, sharing the risk with taxpayers’ money.

Global investors are increasingly looking to Canada as a destination for major new investments, owing to the increasingly risky, unpredictable, and poorly managed economy in the USA. The federal government is working to ensure these new projects move forward.

The Major Projects Office is working closely with project proponents to ensure these projects are not hindered by pesky and profit-reducing environmental, safety and labour regulations. The Carney government is assessing projects for potential designation under the Building Canada Act. Such designation shortens the review process and increases penalties should Indigenous people, environmentalists and people who fear the poisonous by-products of many such projects, and try to block them with protests.

The Carney government appears likely to approve more pipelines, though the final decision on a major oil pipeline is still forthcoming. Recent policy moves and direct statements from the PM indicate a strong push to fast-track major resource projects.

The government is planning “comprehensive” regulatory changes to make pipeline approvals easier and faster. This includes adopting a “one project, one review” system with a two-year federal decision deadline. Among other things, the aim of this step is to block Quebec or any other province from imposing a second review. This move will be tested in court.

In a recent interview, Carney stated a new oil pipeline is “more likely than not,” citing the need to diversify exports away from the US to Asian markets.

On April 25, 2026, Ottawa officially approved a $4 billion expansion of a natural gas pipeline to the west coast.

Much of the focus is on finalizing a pending deal with Alberta. Premier Danielle Smith uses the cudgel of separatism to help Carney sell such deals to working people. A Memorandum of Agreement would exempt Alberta from an emissions cap, along with clean electricity rules, in exchange for the province raising its industrial carbon price. The goal is a new oil pipeline to British Columbia’s coast, with Premier Smith hoping for a final deal “in the next number of days”.

The deal requires the pipeline to be privately financed, in the face of steep costs (potentially billions) and low oil prices that make private investment uncertain.

If the MOU is finalized soon, a formal project proposal is expected by July 2026, but construction would not begin until at least 2029.

Where the federal government is active, the Canada Strong Fund will focus on complementing these efforts—investing alongside private capital in a growing stream of projects and companies, while reducing risk for private investors.

A new crown corporation will be created with “Independence and professional management” to promote a sovereign wealth fund that can make long-term, economically sound investment decisions. The capitalist government states that this approach to structure is widely regarded as global best practice “because it strengthens transparency, credibility, and long-term performance through consistent, expert management.”

It does no such thing. The Board will be composed of recent CEOs, bankers, lawyers, accountants and investment broker executives, entirely representative of the financial wing of the capitalist class and representing their interests solely.

The government intends to offer Canadians “the opportunity” to participate directly in the Fund through a new retail investment product.

This means that any Canadian who wishes to do so, can invest some of their savings into the Canada Strong Fund.

The government intends to consult on the specific design of this product, but Canadians can expect to see the following features:

Broadly accessible to Canadians from coast to coast to coast;
Easy and simple to purchase, hold, and transact;
As the Canada Strong Fund succeeds or fails, investors will be able to share in the upside, or downside while their initial invested capital will be protected.

As former Chair of the Investment Committee of the $200 billion Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, I can tell you that I would not invest in such a security. It is designed to subsidize the rich and buffer their losses.

If Carney wants to build out Canadian resources and energy, why not impose a hefty billionaires’ tax, impose Norway-level royalties and use the proceeds to assemble publicly owned assets managed by workers and communities, including a new carbon and methane-free energy grid.

In summary, the Canada Strong Fund is not a national “wealth” fund. It is but the latest tool of the capitalist state designed to ameliorate a crisis of capitalism using borrowed public money, to reduce risk for the capitalist class.

Is War Addiction Really Something to Celebrate?

The Red Review — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:02:37 GMT

We won. But please don’t ask exactly what.

For the foreseeable future a major Canadian city is set to be a central node in linking global finance to arms production. Montreal, Toronto, or whichever city ‘wins’ hosting rights for the global war bank will become a symbol of militarism for decades to come.

Last month Canada was formally selected to host a new multilateral war bank. It’s now up to the federal government to decide which city will host the Defense, Security and Resilience Bank.

The DSRB will further marry investment agencies and major banks to arms producers. One aim of the multilateral financial institution is to draw the major commercial banks and large investment agencies, like the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, into closer ties with the arms industry. The war bank, explains Palestinian Youth Movement campaigner Umer Azad, will “raise capital on global markets, issue bonds, and extend loans to governments and defense companies. That means funding for military supply chains, weapons systems, and defense infrastructure would increasingly flow through financial markets rather than direct public expenditure. In doing so, war itself risks being transformed from a political decision subject to public scrutiny into a financial product embedded in portfolios.”

Think ‘military-industrial-financial complex’ as Canadian capitalists get increased profits from the financial part.

The DSRB will offer low-cost loans to ‘allied’ countries to facilitate their military buildup. The war bank is part of retooling Canada and most NATO economies to a perpetual war economy. It is designed to assist a historic increase in war spending. In discussing the project, the Canadian president of the DSRB Development Group, Kevin Reed, said NATO military spending is expected to grow from $1.6 trillion to $4 trillion annually over the next nine years. For its part, Canada has agreed to the Donald Trump-inspired target of 5% of GDP (3.5% direct and 1.5% associated) devoted to the military that will grow spending from $40 billion last year to $150 billion in a decade.

In his first year in office Mark Carney has radically boosted military spending. He’s also laid out a long-term plan to further link economic development to war, establishing a $6.6 billion Defense Industrial Strategy.

At the same time, Carney has slashed health transfers and spending on pharmacare. Thousands of federal service jobs are being cut while the Department of National Defence workforce will grow.

Irrespective of the social programs it starves or the violence it will likely spur, all politicians support the War Bank. The NDP premier of BC, the former NDP MP who is now Toronto mayor, and Quebec Solidaire have all joined in the effort to bring the war bank to their respective cities. The new left-ish NDP leader Avi Lewis has kept silent on the DSRB -- despite the fact that it is generally easier to stop a project before it has taken root.

While social democratic politicians back their cities’ bid for the war bank, some resistance is brewing. Some educators have protested the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s support for the bank. A coalition involving the Council of Canadians, 350.org, Canadian Federation of Students, and dozens of other organizations was launched to “Stop! The Global War Bank”. Its statement notes, “we reject the DSRB war bank. Not in Toronto, not in Canada, not on this planet.”

But we need a massive resistance to prevent the economy becoming ever more addicted to war. Because that growing addiction is what Canada actually ‘won.’

Who Took the Hit on TMX?

The Red Review — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:00:00 GMT

The original 1,150 km pipeline was built in a record 30 months, following the major Leduc oil strike in 1947. It was seen as a strategic necessity during the Korean War to move crude from Alberta to refineries in Burnaby, BC, and Washington State. The first oil arrived at Burnaby on October 17, 1953.

By the early 2000s, the original line was full. Kinder Morgan proposed the expansion in 2012 to increase capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day. However, the project faced fierce opposition from environmental groups and Indigenous communities over oil spills and tanker traffic, leading to years of legal battles and policy changes.

Facing indefinite delays and massive cost overruns, Kinder Morgan threatened to scrap the project in 2018. To save it, the Canadian government bought the pipeline for C$4.5 billion in August 2018. That turned Ottawa into the operator of a major oil pipeline for the first time in decades.

Construction was plagued by COVID-19, supply chain issues, and natural disasters. BC NDP Premier John Horgan fought it through to the Supreme Court and lost. Hundreds of British Columbians were arrested trying to stop construction, including Elizabeth May who flew in from Ottawa just long enough for a photo op.

After costs ballooned to over C$34 billion (six times the original estimate), the expansion finally opened on May 1, 2024.

Today, the pipeline moves nearly 900,000 barrels per day to global markets, boosting Canadian oil prices. However, the government is stuck holding the debt. They are currently trying to sell the pipeline back to private investors, including Indigenous groups, likely at a multi-billion-dollar loss.

Here is a breakdown of the government’s plan to sell the Trans Mountain pipeline and its economic impact so far.

Ottawa never wanted to be a long-term pipeline operator. It bought the asset in 2018 for $4.5 billion just to ensure the expansion was actually completed, knowing well that the certain loss would be foisted on the working class, not the filthy rich. The current plan has two main phases.

Phase 1 (Indigenous Stake): The government is first talking with over 120 Indigenous nations along the route to offer them an equity stake. This is seen as a key step toward reconciliation. This deal is far from certain and fast-talking federal lawyers will do their best to cheat the Indigenous peoples. Fortunately, the Indigenous people have some very experienced Indigenous lawyers on their side.

Phase 2 (Remaining Stake): After the Indigenous stake is set, the government will seek commercial buyers for the rest. Pembina Pipeline (through the Chinook Pathways partnership) and Project Reconciliation have expressed interest.

The sale is complicated by the project’s massive financial baggage. The expansion cost ballooned to over $34 billion—six times the original estimate.

The Valuation Gap: Analysts estimate the pipeline is currently worth between $15 billion and $25 billion. That means the government is likely facing a loss of at least $9 billion on the sale.

Toll Uncertainty: Pipeline value is derived from the discounted value of future revenue based on shipping tolls, which are still being negotiated with oil companies, making future earnings hard to predict.

Limited Buyers: Major players like Enbridge aren’t interested, and pension funds are avoiding fossil fuel assets due to climate related risk exposure.

Despite the financial headache for taxpayers, TMX is delivering major economic wins for Canadian oil, given current global instability and most recently because of the criminal, unprovoked attack on Iran by the US and Israel.

Market Access & Pricing: Canada no longer has to sell almost all its oil to the U.S. at a discount. TMX now ships 890,000 barrels per day to Asia. Due to conflicts in the Middle East, Asian buyers are now paying a US$2–3 premium for Canadian oil to replace disrupted supplies.

Revenue & Royalties: Higher oil prices mean higher royalties for Alberta and better cash flow for producers across the board.

The “Capacity Cliff”: TMX is already operating at full capacity—sooner than expected. Because of this demand, Trans Mountain is planning further expansions to add an extra 360,000 barrels per day by 2028.

The bottom line: Canada has gained a critical economic lifeline and access to world prices, but taxpayers are facing a multi-billion-dollar loss when the government finally sells it.

The murderous onslaught against the people of Iran, a war crime and a massive tragedy is enriching Canadian oil billionaires to the delight of Mark Carney and Danielle Smith. But just around the corner is a $10 to $20 billion dollar loss to be borne by the workers of Canada.

Moreover, the entire project is a massive support to fossil fuel contamination of our future. It is certain to speed-up killer global warming. There is no Planet B.

In Quebec and Everywhere, Anti-Racism is Essential to Class Politics

The Red Review — Fri, 29 May 2026 14:56:13 GMT

Rather than treat her remarks as an invitation to reflect on the social reality of racism in Quebec, the political and media establishment transformed them into a national affront. The terms of the debate were rapidly reduced to an absurd binary: either one stood with Elghawaby and, by extension, with Ottawa, or one stood with Quebec. In that framework, there could be no nuance, no complexity, no space for anyone attempting to hold together two basic truths at once: that Quebec is a nation with a legitimate collective existence, and that racism, including Islamophobia, is a real and deadly force within it.

This is one of the defining operations of contemporary right-wing identitarian politics in Quebec. It transforms any criticism of racism into an attack on the nation itself. It recasts anti-racism not as a democratic necessity, but as a foreign imposition. It suggests that to name racism is to deny Quebec’s dignity, rather than to insist that any society worthy of dignity must be able to confront its own injustices honestly.

The Elghawaby affair was never only about one public figure or one set of comments. It exposed the broader ideological terrain on which debates about race, secularism, identity, and belonging now take place in Quebec. On that terrain, acknowledging Islamophobia is treated as more scandalous than Islamophobia itself. Naming racism is seen as divisive, while the structures and discourse that produce exclusion are treated as expressions of collective self-affirmation.

The reaction reached its apex when all parties represented in the National Assembly, including Québec solidaire, voted in favour of a motion condemning Elghawaby’s remarks. At that moment, the entire parliamentary spectrum effectively closed ranks around a shared refusal to confront social and political conditions that had already produced lethal consequences. Quebec remains marked by the massacre at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, where Muslim worshippers were murdered while at prayer in 2017. Yet even the memory of that attack has not been enough to force a sustained reckoning with the environment of normalized suspicion, resentment, and scapegoating in which anti-Muslim violence becomes more likely.

The issue is not whether Quebec is uniquely racist. Indeed, racism is a structuring reality across Canada. The issue is also not whether Quebecers have a right to self-determination – they do – although those national aspirations must be pursued in a way that respects the equal right of Indigenous nations to self-determination, rather than resting on their dispossession or marginalization.

The issue is whether the left is willing to tell the truth about the society in which it operates. And more than that: whether it is capable of understanding that the struggle against racism is not secondary to class politics, not a diversion from it, not a boutique moral concern for urban professionals, but one of the central terrains on which class domination is organized and reproduced.

The right-wing onslaught

The right-wing offensive in Quebec, much like in France and across the globe, does not operate primarily by openly defending racism in crude biological terms. It proceeds instead through euphemism, through displacement, through coded language about “integration,” “values,” “social cohesion,” “common culture,” and “secularism.” It denies the existence or prevalence of racism while constantly producing racist political meanings. It insists that the problem is not Muslims, immigrants, or racialized communities as such, but their supposed failure to adapt, their excessive visibility, their alleged refusal to conform to the norms of the host society.

This distinction is politically useful precisely because it allows a reactionary politics to present itself as universal, republican, or neutral. Exclusion is reframed as principle. Discrimination is recast as civic firmness. And those who object are portrayed not as defenders of equality, but as sectarian actors trying to import dangerous “Anglo-Saxon” obsessions with race into a supposedly colour-blind society.

This logic has become a structuring feature of public debate in Quebec. Questions that should be approached in material and democratic terms are reframed as existential threats to national identity. The debate is no longer about discrimination in hiring, housing, policing, or access to institutions. It becomes a battle over whether “they” share “our” values. It is no longer about whether Muslim women can access work, education, and civic participation on equal terms. It becomes a discussion of whether visible religiosity is compatible with Quebec modernity.

The same general mechanism has long been visible in France. The hijab, halal food, mosques, religious associations, Muslim schools, public prayer, anti-discrimination organizing – in France, all of these have been repeatedly transformed into symbols of national crisis, by the right and by large sections of the political mainstream. This constant creation of a state of crisis has little to do with concrete threats and everything to do with governing through division.

The point is not merely to stigmatize Muslims. It is to build a broader political bloc organized around resentment, fear, and a reactionary conception of national belonging. A social crisis produced by neoliberal restructuring, austerity, and democratic exhaustion is narrativized as a cultural crisis caused by migrants, racialized minorities, and the alleged collapse of authority. Instead of anger being directed upward — toward landlords, bosses, privatizers, political elites — it is redirected downward, toward those with even less power.

This is why the right’s culture war is never just cultural. It has a clear social function. It disorganizes solidarity. It weakens trade-union instincts. It fragments shared grievances into competing identities. It turns workers against one another by suggesting that some are more legitimate members of the collective than others. It invites white or majority workers to see themselves not as exploited subjects with common interests alongside racialized workers, but as members of a threatened national core under siege from outsiders.

In this framework, anti-racism becomes especially dangerous to the right because it disrupts the narrative. It insists that the problem is not excessive diversity but organized inequality and oppression. It reveals that what is presented as cultural incompatibility is often just the political management of labour, status, and belonging. It points out that those cast as problems are often the very people cleaning hospitals, delivering food, staffing long-term care homes, driving buses, filling warehouses, and holding together the most fragile parts of the social order.

The right therefore requires that anti-racism appear alien, elitist, and disconnected from ordinary life. It must be presented as a discourse imported from universities, NGOs, or Ottawa – never as something emerging from the lived experience of workers subjected to discrimination and exploitation. This is one of its most effective ideological maneuvers: to treat anti-racism as foreign to the working class while simultaneously defining the working class in ways that exclude those most affected by racism.

That is not a secondary distortion. It is the heart of the strategy.

Leftist proposals that fall short of actual left politics

Faced with this sustained offensive, large parts of the left have failed to respond with clarity. Some have chosen evasion. Others have retreated into moral denunciation without strategy. Still others have accepted the right’s basic framing and concluded that anti-racism, however well intentioned, has become a political liability best softened, postponed, or subordinated.

In Quebec, this problem is intensified by history. Much of the institutional left in the province emerged from a political culture shaped by national liberation, sovereignty, and the defence of Quebec’s autonomy against the Canadian federal state. That history matters. It contains real emancipatory elements. But it also creates a recurring vulnerability: the accusation of siding with Ottawa can still function as a political veto. Once anti-racism is coded as federalist, moralizing, or alien to Quebec’s collective experience, many on the left become cautious, defensive, and disoriented.

This helps explain the recurring temptation to return to what are often called “bread and butter” issues. The argument usually goes something like this: the left has become too preoccupied with identity, culture, and symbolic struggles; it has lost contact with working people; it needs to return to wages, inflation, housing, and healthcare; anti-racism and similar struggles are either distractions or at least should be de-emphasized in favour of more universal economic appeals.

This diagnosis is superficially attractive because it names something real: many people are suffering materially, and the left does need to speak concretely about exploitation, austerity, and redistribution. But the proposed remedy is deeply flawed. It assumes that class can be politically articulated in a way that bypasses race, religion, and immigration status. It imagines that there exists some pure social question untouched by the hierarchies that actually shape labour markets and everyday life.

When the left counterposes anti-racism to “real” class politics, it concedes the right’s central premise: that issues of race are niche, divisive, or external to common material life. It ends up reproducing the fiction of an average worker who is culturally one of the majority, implicitly white, and unaffected by the forms of exclusion directed at migrants, Muslims, Black people, and other racialized groups. In other words, it speaks of universality while quietly narrowing the universe of those it imagines.

This is not merely a moral failure. It is a strategic disaster. A left that refuses to see how racism structures class relations cannot build durable majorities. It cannot organize the sectors of the working class most exposed to precarity. It cannot explain why some workers are more vulnerable to wage theft, deportability, informalization, or public exclusion than others. It cannot account for why reactionary narratives resonate where collective infrastructures have weakened. And it cannot construct solidarity if it refuses to address the fractures through which ruling classes govern.

Québec solidaire’s difficulties have often been interpreted through this lens. Whenever the party is attacked for supposedly focusing too much on anti-racism, its representatives appear to feel a pressure to reassure, rebalance, depoliticize. But this defensive posture only deepens the problem. It leaves the right in command of the terms of debate. It permits the media ecosystem to define anti-racism as excess, and a focus on class politics turns into silence on racism. And it demoralizes those militants and communities who understand, from direct experience, that these questions cannot be split apart.

The same dynamic exists in many places outside Quebec. France is a notable example. Sections of the left there have long hesitated to engage directly with anti-Muslim racism for fear of appearing communautariste – that is, overly fixated on a particular community rather than the social whole – or anti-republican, or lenient when it comes to enforcing secularism. The result has often been paralysis: a left unable to respond adequately either to the far right’s offensive or to the realities of postcolonial exclusion in the deprived banlieues (suburbs), schools, labour market, and the criminal justice system.

In France as in Quebec, the left is too often failing to develop a materialist politics of race. It either treats anti-racism as a moral supplement detached from economic struggle, or it abandons it altogether in the name of economic universality. Both paths are dead ends. What is needed instead is a politics that understands how racism is woven into the production, management, and fragmentation of the working class itself.

Class politics is anti-racist politics

Capitalism has never exploited a generic labour force in the abstract. It has always organized labour through difference. Colonialism, slavery, immigration regimes, legal stratification, citizenship hierarchies, and racial segmentation are not side stories to capitalism’s development; they are among its principal mechanisms. The making of labour markets has always involved deciding whose work is cheapened, whose mobility is restricted, whose humanity is diminished, and whose disposability can be normalized.

Racism, then, is not simply prejudice. It is a mode of social organization. It sorts populations, allocates vulnerability, and justifies uneven treatment. It tells us who is expected to absorb risk, who is denied recognition, who can be excluded from protections, and who can be blamed when social systems fail.

This is visible everywhere. In Quebec, racialized and immigrant workers are heavily concentrated in sectors marked by low wages, difficult conditions, and weak protections: food processing, warehousing, domestic work, cleaning, care work, platform delivery, agriculture, private security, and many others. During the pandemic’s emergency period, many of the workers called “essential” were precisely those treated as disposable in ordinary times. They were praised symbolically while being exposed materially.

You cannot make sense of this with a race-blind class politics. Why are some workers overrepresented in the hardest jobs? Why are temporary migrants often more vulnerable to abuse? Why are some workers less likely to complain about unsafe conditions? Why do some face additional barriers in accessing stable public employment? Why do credential recognition, language policy, policing, and immigration status shape bargaining power? These are not marginal questions. They are central questions of class composition.

Even debates that appear symbolic or cultural often have important material content. Consider the exclusion of Muslim women wearing religious symbols from certain forms of public employment. This is often defended as a neutral expression of secularism. But in practice it means barriers to stable jobs, pensions, career progression, and unionized workplaces. It means constraining the economic horizon of a section of the working class on explicitly ideological grounds. It means telling certain women that participation in public life is conditional on effacing themselves in ways the majority never has to contemplate. That is class politics. Or rather, that is class domination articulated through racism and gender.

The same is true in France, where anti-Muslim discourse has repeatedly been used to legitimize forms of public exclusion that have direct material effects. To talk about police harassment, discrimination in hiring, school exclusion, urban fragmentation, and stigmatization of the banlieues is not to leave class behind. It is to describe how class is lived under raced conditions in contemporary capitalism.

A serious left must therefore reject two illusions at once. The first is the liberal illusion that anti-racism can be reduced to representational diversity, symbolic recognition, or ethical sensitivity while leaving structures untouched. The second is the economistic illusion that redistribution alone can solve racism without directly confronting the political and ideological machinery that produces racial hierarchy. Both are insufficient because both separate what in reality is joined.

Anti-racist class politics means recognizing that solidarity cannot be proclaimed into existence while major sections of the working class are routinely stigmatized, policed, and excluded. It means understanding that class unity is not a starting point but a project — one that requires active struggle against the divisions through which capital and the state govern. It means refusing the fantasy that one can organize workers effectively while treating some workers’ oppression as secondary, exaggerated, or politically inconvenient.

There is also a harder truth. When the left refuses anti-racism, it does not produce a more coherent class politics. It produces a more exclusionary one. It allows the rhetoric of the people, the nation, or the common good to be captured by those who would reserve those categories for some and not others. That is why anti-racism is not merely defensive. It is generative. It expands the horizon of who counts in the collective. It clarifies who the adversary is. It redirects anger away from scapegoats and toward structures. It creates the basis on which workers with different histories and positions can recognize themselves in a shared struggle without pretending they are identical. A left worthy of the name does not flatten those differences. It organizes through them.

La France Insoumise and a way forward

If Quebec illustrates the impasse, the French party La France Insoumise (LFI) offers at least a partial example of how the left can begin to move differently. Not perfectly, not without contradiction, but in a way that is strategically sound.

What has distinguished LFI, at its best, is its refusal of the false opposition between anti-racism and social struggle. In a political landscape where much of the mainstream treats anti-racist politics as suspect or divisive, LFI has insisted – unevenly but unmistakably – that “the people” must include racialized minorities, that the social question cannot be detached from the postcolonial question, and that a democratic bloc cannot be built by excluding Muslims.

This matters enormously in the French context. France has spent decades producing a specifically republican version of racial politics, in which the state claims blindness to race while managing profoundly raced inequalities in policing, schooling, housing, work, and media discourse. Under these conditions, for a left party to name Islamophobia, speak to the banlieues, oppose police violence, and link those struggles to austerity and neoliberalism is not a minor rhetorical choice. It is a strategic reorientation.

LFI has understood something that much of the traditional left in France fails to grasp: that France’s contemporary working classes are not the workers of a nostalgic industrial past. They are multiethnic, urban and peri-urban, precarious, feminized in many sectors, shaped by migration and colonial histories, and often alienated not only from the market but from institutions that treat them with open suspicion. A left that does not speak to these publics is not speaking to the working class as it really exists.

What LFI has tried to do, at its strongest moments, is build a popular bloc wide enough to include both classic redistributive demands and an explicit confrontation with racism. Letting itself be influenced by progressive social movements, it has linked pension reform, wage struggles, and public services to police repression, anti-Muslim stigma, and territorial abandonment. It has refused to treat these as separate audiences or disconnected agendas.

The significance of this approach is not that it resolves every tension. LFI has faced criticism, backlash, caricature, and internal contradictions, but it has at least shown that there is political life beyond the sterile choice between moralized liberal anti-racism and reductive economism. It has demonstrated that one can speak of class without erasing race, and speak of racism without abandoning projects of economic transformation.

This is especially important for Quebec. The lesson is not that one can mechanically import the French case, or that these dynamics are disproportionately present in the francophone world. Still, though Quebec has its own history, its own national question, and its own institutional forms, the strategic lesson of La France Insoumise is transferable: a left grows stronger, not weaker, when it confronts racism as part of the general struggle against domination. It becomes more rooted in a popular base, not less, when it organizes among those most exposed to both exploitation and exclusion. It gains coherence when it stops treating anti-racism as an embarrassment to be managed and starts treating it as one of the languages through which collective emancipation must now be articulated.

What LFI points toward is a renewed universalism: not the false universalism that asks the marginalized to disappear into an abstract white, cis, documented citizen, but a concrete universalism built from below, out of the actual plurality of the people. A universalism that does not deny conflict, history, or hierarchy, but seeks to overcome them politically. That is the way forward. Not a left that chooses between class politics and anti-racism, but one that understands the former is inseparable from the latter. Not a left that clings to an imagined social subject stripped of race, migration, religion, gender, and history, but one that wants to rebuild solidarity on the basis of the working class as it actually exists. Not a left that adapts itself to reactionary nationalism’s terms, but one that confronts it head on, understanding how capitalism governs through fragmentation.

The task, then, is to reunify anti-racism and class struggle intellectually, strategically, and organizationally. To show, concretely, how labour markets are raced, how exclusion weakens collective power, how scapegoating protects elites, how secularism can become a tool of class discipline, how immigration status shapes exploitation, and how racism helps govern precarious workers’ lives. In other words: to tell the truth about the society we live in. Only on that basis can a left worthy of the moment be rebuilt.

Reprinted from Midnight Sun, 2026.

The Red Review | Issue #32 (May 2026)

The Red Review — Sat, 02 May 2026 01:57:55 GMT

NDP Turns Slightly Left

By Barry Weisleder

A split on the upper deck of the New Democratic Party bureaucracy led to a win for film-maker Avi Lewis over MP Heather McPherson. Lewis captured the leadership on the first ballot with 56 per cent of the 70,934 votes cast. The emergent new majority testified to the weakness of the party establishment – the officials chiefly responsible for the electoral disaster in April 2025. The federal tally reduced the NDP to 7 seats (now 6, soon to be 5). With the loss of party status in Parliament, the NDP was instantly deprived of scores of paid staff positions and state subsidies. The party remains saddled with a $13 million debt. Under these conditions, the left social democratic forces of Lewis also captured the top three positions on the party’s federal executive: President, Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer. No longer impeded by the erstwhile powerful right wing, Lewis will have few excuses to fail to advance his campaign promises.

After the NDP Convention - Prospects for Socialists

By Gary Porter

On April 28, 2025, the federal election results signaled a sharp defeat for the labour-based, but pro-capitalist New Democratic Party. After two years-plus in a class collaborationist “supply and confidence” pact with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, the party had won a privately operated, very limited, income-tested dental program, and subsidized birth control and insulin medications. In exchange, the 24 NDP members of Parliament voted to support Trudeau’s budgets, which included major increases in military spending, huge subsidies for oil and gas billionaires, Trudeau’s strike breaking measures, and more. Faced with polls showing Pollievre’s anti-labour Conservatives in the lead as the election campaign commenced, and an NDP offering no working-class agenda, many workers, including traditional NDP supporters, plumped for Trudeau as a “lesser evil”.

The Story of Ginger Goodwin, a Martyr of Canadian Labour

By Gary Porter

Albert Edgar Goodwin was born on May 10, 1887, in the small mining village of Treeton in Yorkshire, England. He was the son of a coal miner, and his future was etched in stone from the start. The life of a miner in late 19th-century England was one of brutal hardship, defined by long hours, constant danger, and meager pay. At the tender age of 12, Albert followed his father into the pits, his formal education cut short by the family’s economic necessity. Another version of his story says he started in the mines at 15 because his parents wanted him to learn to read and write. It was in these dark, cramped tunnels that he earned his nickname, “Ginger,” a moniker derived from his fiery red hair and, as those who knew him would later attest, an equally fiery temperament.

CUPW Leadership at a Cross Road

By Kiri Vadivelu

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) leadership is sending mixed signals on the tentative agreement with Canada Post. A minority of the National Executive Board (NEB) urges members to vote “No” on a deal reached in December 2025. The NEB majority believes the time to fight for a better deal is over. The high stakes vote is scheduled to occur between April 20 and May 30, 2026 where members are expected to vote on the tentative agreement -- and simultaneously vote on whether to grant a new strike mandate if the deal is rejected. Key aspects of the CUPW split arises from conflicting strategies and unresolved working conditions in the agreement. CUPW President Jan Simpson and four other NEB members are encouraging a “No” vote, arguing that the deal does not resolve key issues, despite protecting some rights.

Reflections on European Jewry’s Trek from Socialism to Fascism – and Back?

By Hans Modlich

Avi Lewis’ sweeping first ballot victory in the NDP leadership race has put socialism squarely back on Canada’s political agenda. His anti-Zionist slate swept all the key executive posts in the party. He recalled his great grandfather as being a Bundist, as were the majority of Eastern European Jewry at the birth of the 20^th century. The Jewish Labor Bund was secular, socialist, and profoundly anti-Zionist. The Bundists fought for dignity and equality, not in an imagined homeland in Palestine but “here where we live”. Molly Crabapple’s just released book “Here Where We Live Is Our Country” chronicles the lives of the Bundist internationalist and socialist leaders and their heroic resistance from Czarist times to the Warsaw ghetto’s worst depravities - a time when the world’s elites were just as indifferent to the genocide of Jews as they are today to the Palestinian holocaust.

DRIPA’s Deadlock. ‘We Will Not Back Down’

By Andrew MacLeod

First Nations leaders are condemning Premier David Eby’s plan to suspend parts of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, or DRIPA, as a step backward that will increase uncertainty for all British Columbians and create political problems for the NDP. “To say we are frustrated or angry would be an understatement,” said Robert Phillips, First Nations Summit leader, at a Friday news conference. “This is a historical moment for First Nations and we will not back down.”Eby has said suspending sections of DRIPA before the legislature breaks for the summer is necessary because of litigation risks the province faces. Huy’wu’qw Shana Thomas, Lyackson Hereditary Chief and a member of the First Nations Summit Task Group, accused the premier of fearmongering and making unilateral decisions.

Socialist Action’s May Day Statement on Defeating U.S. Imperialism’s Wars

By Socialist Action USA

The world’s people in the main declared US President Donald Trump a war criminal when he announced on April 7, 2026 that, “The whole [Iranian] civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” Trump’s threat of yet another US genocide, this time against the Iranian nation of 90 million, follows the Biden administration-Zionist Israel’s genocidal slaughter of 70,000 Palestinians two years ago. That horror is ongoing. That the US imperialist beast, whose annual military and CIA-plus “national security-” related expenditures, at nearly $3 trillion, exceed the world’s combined total, has already destroyed over the past 40 days much of Iran’s industrial, economic, energy and above ground military infrastructure.

The Socialist Character of Our Revolution is Not a Phrase from the Past; It is the Shield of the Present and the Guarantee of the Future!

By Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Sixty-five years ago, women and men who were as young or younger than all of us filling these streets today—possibly many grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, or fathers of some of us—gathered here to write a truly epic chapter in contemporary world history. That day changed history, and not just for Cuba. With an invasion on the verge of our shores, with no certainty yet as to where they would land, but aware that behind the invaders stood the full backing of the powerful United States government, the voice of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, nearly broken by the strain of hours of sleeplessness and tension, rose above the crowd overflowing this historic corner to declare that we were what we continue to be: a socialist revolution right under the empire’s nose!

NDP Turns Slightly Left

The Red Review — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:31:10 GMT

Under these conditions, the left social democratic forces of Lewis also captured the top three positions on the party’s federal executive: President, Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer. No longer impeded by the erstwhile powerful right wing, Lewis will have few excuses to fail to advance his campaign promises. They include calling for a chain of publicly-owned grocery stores, a network of public telecom providers, postal banking, a public pharmaceutical manufacturer and a federal house-building agency, plus slightly higher taxation of the top one per cent.

But none of this should be confused with socialism – a planned economy under workers’ control. Absent that, the ploy is an old, rather vain endeavor to fix capitalism, rather than abolish it.

Inside the convention hall, policy debate was really quite limited. The leaders of both factions strived to avoid controversy. With few exceptions, the only resolutions to see any daylight were of the milquetoast brand. Systematically excluded were proposals for deep structural change to foster democratic debate, genuine accountability, and to conduct elections without willful obstruction by secret, non-elected ‘vetting’ committees. This exclusion occurred despite widespread campaigning for change across the country, backed by multiple endorsements for reform motions that local affiliates submitted. Even efforts merely to criticize weak proposals at a CON mic were stymied by moves to “call the question” (i.e. to end debate) by overzealous youth delegates. More and quicker votes offer no remedy when almost all the offerings elevated to the top of each of the seven subject categories are just so much detritus. Occasionally, a Socialist Caucus member would break through the morass – such as when SC candidate for President, Jasmine Peardon, at a CON mic, ridiculed the claim that Justin Trudeau led a “feminist” foreign policy that should be restored. SC contender for BC rep, former New Westminster labour council president Stephen Crozier, seized the opportunity to call for an end to the billionaire class.

Decades of stifling top-down control, replete with summary punishment for non-conformists, especially pro-Palestinian campaigners, embittered the convention. A majority of the 1,519 registered delegates were eager to remove the severe party administration headed by National Director Lucy Watson.

A dozen Socialist Caucus candidates for executive got caught in a squeeze play between the two established slates, Avi’s team versus Heather’s. Few ‘progressives’ were inclined to vote SC and risk the perpetuation of the cruel status quo enforced by the right wing. All were well aware of the exclusion of anti-imperialist author Yves Engler from the leadership race, and the blocking of Bianca Mugyenyi (the first Black woman to run for NDP leader since Rosemary Brown in 1975). They knew about the expulsion of Yves from the party, followed by the cancelation of this writer’s credential just 30 minutes after the fee for it was paid online.

In this tense atmosphere it was unsurprising that Watson directed the Winnipeg Convention Center security staff to deny the SC a space to set up a display table, or even to distribute leaflets and raise the banner bearing the slogan “Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed – Onwards to a Socialist Future!” Notwithstanding the party’s onerous debt, Watson found sufficient funds to hire Winnipeg city police to remove Yves from the building – an effort deflected by the militant intervention of several delegates. Socialists persisted, rather innovatively, to display an array of booklets, leaflets, policy statements, T-shirts and buttons in an open suitcase on the mezzanine second floor. Hundreds of delegates visited the unusual showcase, purchasing over $900 in materials. Nearly one hundred folks signed up to join the Socialist Caucus. The “Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed” (CCbF) policy manual was in constant hot demand.

Socialists co-hosted two rallies outdoors at the main entrance to the Convention Center – one to demand I.C.E. out of Canada, another to urge the NDP to take a stronger position against the U.S./Zionist war on Iran, and the blockade of revolutionary Cuba.

Two social events, featuring professional musicians, an amusing skit, free snacks, and short speeches, took place under the banner of the CCbF, at the renowned Rudy’s Eat and Drink. Most importantly, socialists built a cross-country team, anchored by a superb organizing committee in Winnipeg, that worked tirelessly, with great spirit and good humour. In the course of the three-day convention, participants witnessed the emergence of a layer of young activists who represent the future of the insurgent movement.

Questions do remain. Now that Avi Lewis is the federal leader, what will he do to erase the party’s deep democratic deficit? During the leadership race, he was exceptionally quiet on this point, as were most of the other contestants. They tended to support each other, but not the victims of political exclusion. Will Lewis abolish, or radically change the vetting process for NDP candidates on all levels. At the very least, will he fire the incorrigible Lucy Watson?

The Socialist campaign of Yves Engler attracted hundreds of young people who are anti-capitalist, even revolutionary socialist.

Avi Lewis’ campaign, on the other hand, attracted young people who are radicalized on single issues, such as the fight against racism, sexism, pollution and war. Those radicalized young people seek broader social change, but may not yet understand that the entire capitalist state structure and economic system must be eradicated -- root and branch. The temporary arrival of many young workers to a rather arthritic NDP offers fertile ground for socialist ideas and action, both in and around the NDP. It amounts to a hopeful opening for revolutionaries.

At the Convention’s end, while most participants streamed homeward, dozens of socialists gathered for a de-brief session. Their consensus was two-fold: 1. It is necessary to hold Avi’s feet to the fire, inside the party, while counteracting right wing attacks on him in the corporate media. 2. In this moment of broad disillusionment and disaffection with global capitalism, a key task is to collaborate with anti-capitalist forces outside the NDP.

To discuss next steps forward, including the launch of a new cross-country Socialist Movement, the SC and CCbF will host an in-person and on-line conference on Sunday, May 24 at the Workers Action Centre in Toronto. Join us!

After the NDP Convention - Prospects for Socialists

The Red Review — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:28:44 GMT

Faced with polls showing Pollievre’s anti-labour Conservatives in the lead as the election campaign commenced, and an NDP offering no working-class agenda, many workers, including traditional NDP supporters, plumped for Trudeau as a “lesser evil”. Socialists understand that ‘lesser evil’ politics is a trap; it was time to hold our nose and vote for the labour-based NDP.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh resigned on election night. That set in motion a leadership race. Soon there were 6 candidates. Yves Engler, author, anti-imperialist campaigner and socialist, Avi Lewis, a former NDP candidate, a left social democrat, and a scion of the Lewis family of long time NDP leaders, Heather McPherson, an MP from Edmonton and a right-wing social democrat, Rob Ashton, President of the International Longshore Workers Union, Tenille Johnson, an Indigenous municipal councillor from Vancouver Island, and Tony McQuail, a holistic farmer from Ontario.

The rules obliged the candidates to give the party $100,000 plus 25 per cent of all additional funds raised after vetting by a 3-person committee. The appointed committee’s approval was based on vague criteria and a totally opaque process.

The vetting committee, chaired by National Director and supremely autocratic Lucy Watson, rejected the application of Yves Engler on subjective grounds, including the allegation that Yves is ‘too aggressive.’ Yves had a reputation for video recording cabinet ministers as he bid them answer questions about their anti-labour policies and actions, their backing of US wars and their support for more oil and gas pipelines.

In actuality, they opposed Yves because he is a socialist, an outright anti-capitalist and an outspoken advocate of a program that would solve real problems at the expense of capitalism and the profit system. The current NDP leadership sees the capitalist state as a neutral machine that needs only some minor adjustments. The party brass defends capitalism against socialism. By so doing, they betray the interests of the working class. Sadly, there was no opportunity for an independent appeal, no way to defend Yves’ program, in effect, no democracy.

Bianca Mugyenyi, Yves’ partner and campaign co-manager, then applied to be a leadership contestant. She is a powerful, independent-minded socialist in her own right -- the first black woman to seek the position since Rosemary Brown in 1975. Bianca was rejected on the racist and sexist basis that she was merely a pawn, a proxy of Yves. It was then crystal clear that no genuine socialist would be allowed to run.

The campaigns waged for Yves, and then Bianca, disclosed broad support for a socialist NDP leader. The initial $100,000 registration fee was easily raised. When Bianca applied to run, another $100,000 was quickly pledged. Well over 1,000 volunteers signed up. Veteran socialists rejuvenated by the campaign, and hundreds of young people from outside the NDP, from the fight against climate change, campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights, opposition to imperialist wars and for Indigenous rights stepped forward. They reflected the opportunity that the NDP could and should turn sharply to the left and inspire young people across the country.

Yves traveled across Canada. He spoke at meetings from the Atlantic region to Vancouver Island. Like socialist organizers of old, he often traveled by bus or train instead of more expensive air travel; he stayed in the homes of supporters rather than in comfortable hotel rooms, and he found enthusiastic supporters everywhere. Leaflets and campaign buttons proliferated. Social media was quickly engaged. It was inspiring for everyone involved.

Perhaps one of the most inspiring aspects was the project to develop a political program. The campaign issued an open call to all, inviting anyone who wanted to participate in the creation of a socialist program. At the first Zoom policy committee meeting 48 people showed up. These people volunteered for a variety of topic areas and went to work. The project was coordinated by Mark Lister, a union member in Vancouver and Socialist Action organizer, and Jasmine Peardon, a graduate student in Montreal. Working at high speed, this group created a 47-page socialist program in English, 48 pages in French, unanimously adopted. It is rare to see such unity among socialists who come together from disparate backgrounds, experiences and traditions.

The program is titled “Capitalism Can’t be Fixed. Onward to a Socialist Future”. It asserts that big capitalists hold the economic power and control the state which is created entirely to operate in their class interest. It demands the replacement of the capitalist state by a state where workers and the oppressed democratically control the economy in their own interest. It calls for the confiscation of the property of the rich and its deployment under collective ownership. It calls for the dissolution of the capitalist police, military, prisons, courts, spies and indoctrination institutions. It omits only the axiom that socialism cannot be won without the willingness, the capacity, and the structure to confront inevitable capitalist violence, towards the establishment of workers’ power by confronting such ruling class violence.

The NDP federal convention, held in Winnipeg at the end of March, was attended by over 1700 delegates. The gathering was a reflection of Canadian society, incorporating labour and virtually all oppressed sectors of the population. It has become a norm in the NDP for conventions to severely limit discussion on the record of the leadership, the disastrous financial situation, or the tepid and limited policies of the party which offer no fundamental solutions to the growing inequality of wealth, the increasing repressive measures against democratic protest, the increasing allocation of wealth away from basic needs towards war and destruction. In that respect, nothing changed. The Socialist Caucus and Yves Engler supporters were denied even a literature table. Barry Weisleder, chair of the Socialist Caucus, was denied a credential and banned from the convention hall. Lucy Watson had notified Yves Engler before the convention that he had been expelled from membership in the NDP. None of these actions were discussed openly in the official decision-making bodies of the party. They were implemented by fiat from the autocratic, pro-capitalist bureaucrats led by Lucy Watson.

But socialists are very difficult to repress. A literature display was set up to operate out of a suitcase. Huge numbers of socialist leaflets and pamphlets were distributed and sold. Over $900 of literature, buttons and T shirts was sold; over 100 names were added to socialist supporter lists. Two well organized evening parties, featuring professional musicians and singers, were organized by the socialist forces.

The leadership election resulted in a first ballot decisive win by Avi Lewis with 56% of the vote. A slate of Lewis supporters also took control of the party executive. The Lewis campaign put forward a left social democratic populist program. If Lewis wants to lead the party to the left, as he advocated during his campaign, he will need to staff the party with supporters, beginning with the termination of Lucy Watson. The Lewis campaign brought a lot of radicalizing young people into the party, attracted by his left social democratic program. Even to carry forward his reformist program, Lewis will face stiff headwinds. Most of the small parliamentary caucus did not support him. Although he advocates a fair transition for labour towards a sustainable energy system, conservative labour bureaucrats such as those in the steel workers union and some construction trades will oppose him. The Leaders of the pro-oil Alberta and Saskatchewan NDP sections, have already voiced their opposition to his more aggressive climate program.

Despite Lewis’s workers’ rights platform, he secured fewer endorsements from unions, central labour bodies and union leaders than Rob Ashton, the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada.

Unions endorsing Ashton included the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) British Columbia, CUPE Saskatchewan, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2, as well as many local labour councils. Several prominent labour leaders also backed Ashton, including the president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Bea Bruske, and Marty Warren, the national director of the United Steelworkers (USW) Canada.

This level of official labour support was somewhat predictable given Ashton’s prominent place in the Canadian labour movement, particularly in British Columbia. Yet when the votes were tallied, Ashton finished fourth, pulling in only 4,193 votes (5.9 per cent).

As Brock University Labour Studies professor Larry Savage pointed out, unions endorsing Ashton collectively represent 659,200 workers. This means that fewer than 0.6 per cent of members from these endorsing unions joined the NDP and voted for Ashton.

As Savage continued, “The result is a striking reminder that endorsements don’t always translate into votes. Given that organizing and mobilizing are the lifeblood of the union movement, this result is a disaster and tells us a lot about the institutional weakness of unions inside the NDP.”

The result also suggests, however, that many unions did not recognize the growing appetite for change among their own members.

It wasn’t only Ashton’s defeat that revealed labour’s disconnect from NDP members. The Party’s executive, including incumbent treasurer Susanne Skidmore, the sitting president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, was also voted out in favour of the Lewis-aligned “Change, together” slate of candidates.

Thomas Mulcair, a former Liberal Party of Quebec cabinet minister was Federal NDP leader after the death of Jack Layton. With Lucy Watson as his National Campaign Coordinator, he engineered the disastrous 2015 federal election campaign. Despite early polls indicating the NDP would form the federal government, the NDP only won 44 seats. Why? Because Mulcair, ever the responsible capitalist politician, said he would not run a budgetary deficit, proposing instead a policy of higher taxes and cuts to social programs. Capitalist politician Justin Trudeau promised not to do that; he easily defeated Mulcair.

At the subsequent NDP federal convention in Edmonton, Mulcair lost a confidence motion by failing to win a majority of delegates. Since then he has assigned substantial blame to Avi Lewis. He now attacks Lewis as a mainstream political commentator claiming Lewis isn’t sufficiently pragmatic to win an election. He means that Lewis, in his view, isn’t opportunistic enough, and not close enough to the capitalist chattering classes. Of course the Globe and Mail and the National Post will tell Canadian workers repeatedly not to vote for the “extremist” Avi Lewis.

With delegates streaming out of the hall, rushing home at the close of the convention, 46 socialists attended an impromptu evaluation session. They concluded that socialists had two key tasks in the next period. Defend Lewis from the slanders of the capitalist press and rants such as from former NDP leader Thomas Mulcaire, and past leader candidate Brian Topp. Socialists resolved to push Lewis to keep his campaign promises and urge him to move further left. Secondly, to address the increasing numbers of radicalizing Canadians by openly organizing a new socialist movement independent of the NDP which can educate, agitate and organize wherever Canadian workers and oppressed take up the fight against their exploiters and oppressors. Socialists cannot allow the NDP brass to stifle the fight for socialism. The lessons of working-class struggle must be shared with anyone willing to listen, both inside and outside the NDP.

On Sunday, May 24, a hybrid in-person and on-line conference will occur in Toronto. Militants drawn together by the Yves Engler NDP leadership campaign will consider how best to bring together socialists across Canada. The goal is to regroup the increasing numbers of activists in unions and organizations of the oppressed groups into a united socialist movement. A new and growing movement capable of participating in anti-capitalist action and education can move further toward a mass socialist formation with ever deepening roots across the country.

The Story of Ginger Goodwin, a Martyr of Canadian Labour

The Red Review — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:26:56 GMT

May Day was officially declared a workers’ holiday in 1889. At a Paris congress, an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1st for a “great international demonstration” honoring workers. This date was chosen in honour of the workers struggle for the 8-hour day at McCormick Harvester plant in Chicago in 1886 during which police fired on workers killing several. Canadian workers have their own martyrs and this is the story of such a man.

The mines of Yorkshire were also a fertile ground for the labour movement. Goodwin was exposed early to the ideals of trade unionism and socialism, philosophies that offered an explanation for the poverty and exploitation he witnessed daily. By the time he was a young man, he was not only a skilled miner but also a budding activist, convinced that collective action was the only path to dignity for working people.

The Voyage to Canada

In 1906, at the age of 19, Goodwin joined a wave of British immigrants seeking better opportunities in the vast resource frontiers of Canada. He settled in the mining camps of British Columbia, a province then gripped by the fierce battles between powerful industrialists and an increasingly radicalized workforce. He found work in the smelter city of Trail before eventually gravitating to the coal mines of Vancouver Island, specifically the town of Cumberland.

Cumberland was a company town, owned and operated by Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd. The company controlled not just the jobs, but the housing, the stores, and even the police. Miners lived in a state of economic servitude, paid in company scrip that could only be spent at inflated company stores. It was a system designed for control, and it was in this environment that Goodwin’s activism would fully mature.

Rise to Leadership

Goodwin quickly became a central figure in the labor movement on Vancouver Island. He was a natural organizer: articulate, fearless, and possessed of a quiet charisma that made men trust him. In 1912, he was elected secretary of the newly formed Cumberland Miners’ Union, Local 425 of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The union immediately clashed with Canadian Collieries over wages, safety conditions, and the brutal company store system. The simmering conflict erupted in a massive strike in 1912, “The Great Strike” as it is still known, that lasted over two years.

The strike was ultimately defeated, a common outcome in the era’s labor battles. The consequences for Goodwin were severe. His name was placed on a blacklist—a formal list circulated among employers of “troublemakers” who were to be denied employment. Unable to work in the Cumberland mines, Goodwin was forced to leave the island. He found work in the smelter at Trail, B.C., where he continued his union work, helping to organize the smelter workers and further honing his skills as a labor leader.

When World War I broke out in 1914, Goodwin’s convictions were put to a profound test. A committed socialist, he saw the war as an imperialist conflict that pitted worker against worker for the benefit of the ruling class. He publicly opposed conscription when it was introduced in 1917, arguing that working men were being forced to fight for a system that had always exploited them.

The War, the Strike, and the Fugitive

In 1917, Goodwin managed to return to the Cumberland mines, the blacklist apparently having lapsed due to the wartime labor shortage. He resumed his role as a union leader and immediately began organizing against the policies of Canadian Collieries. On the day he was to report for a military medical examination, he was leading a strike over workplace safety, an act of defiance that infuriated the company and the government.

Shortly thereafter, he was declared “fit for service” by the military. Many of his supporters believed this was a direct reprisal for his union activities, a convenient way to remove a dangerous radical from the community. Goodwin had previously been excused from military service owing to previous injuries and lung problems from working in coal mines. Goodwin refused to be conscripted. Instead of reporting for duty, he packed his belongings and, with the help of fellow miners and local Indigenous people who knew the territory, escaped into the dense, mountainous forests surrounding Comox Lake, just outside Cumberland.

For nearly a year, Goodwin lived as a fugitive. He survived in a makeshift cabin, with supporters secretly bringing him food and supplies. He became a folk hero, known as the “Smiling Man” for his cheerful disposition even in hiding. To the miners and their families, he was a symbol of principled resistance against an alliance of corporate power and state authority that was trying to crush them.

Death and Legacy

On July 27, 1918, a special constable named Dan Campbell, a former miner who had crossed the picket line years earlier, tracked Goodwin to his camp. The only account of what happened next comes from Campbell. He claimed that when he ordered Goodwin to surrender, Goodwin reached for his rifle, forcing Campbell to shoot in self-defense. Goodwin was killed instantly by a single bullet to the heart.

The reaction was immediate and explosive. The miners of Cumberland did not believe Campbell’s story. They saw it as a targeted assassination, a message from the company and its allies that the life of a union man was of no consequence. Campbell was arrested but was swiftly acquitted by a grand jury—a body of prominent local citizens—which further fueled the outrage.

News of Goodwin’s death spread like wildfire through the labor halls of British Columbia. In Vancouver, the Trades and Labour Council called for a one-day general strike on August 2, 1918, to protest the killing and the acquittal. It was the first general strike in Canadian history. Thousands of workers walked off their jobs, shutting down the city’s industry and transportation in a powerful display of solidarity.

Albert “Ginger” Goodwin was 31 years old. He was buried in the Cumberland cemetery, his funeral becoming one of the largest public gatherings in the town’s history. His gravestone, bearing the emblem of the UMWA, stands as a monument not just to one man, but to a pivotal moment in the struggle for workers’ rights in Canada. Though he was killed in the final year of World War I, his legacy as a martyr for the cause of labour endured, a potent symbol of resistance against corporate power and state repression.

In subsequent years, reformists and social democrats tried to portray Goodwin as a pacifist and a reformist. But Goodwin’s writings prove that he was a revolutionary socialist and a man willing to fight for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of workers’ power. He was for several years a member of, and in 1916 a candidate for, the Socialist Party of Canada. It was members of the Socialist Party, the One Big Union and the Socialist Labour Party that formed the Communist Party of Canada in 1921, three years after the assassination of Ginger Goodwin.

Here is a sample of Ginger Goodwin’s writings:

“Wherever you go you see the same revolt implanted into the workingmen, and as this thing is gradually increasing why soon things will have to come to a climax.

If we study the condition of the workers it is only logical that this spirit of revolt is existing among them, for wherever we go we see the same miserable conditions and the same competition for jobs in order that they may live.

Now, then, we know that all this misery is the outcome of someone’s carelessness, and that someone is the capitalists, those who own the machinery of production. Now, as this class of parasites have been living on the blood of the working class, they are responsible for the conditions existing at the present time.

… This tool-owning class are the masters of the situation, for in order for you to gain access to the means of life you have to go to an employer and sell yourself. Now, as you go to the boss and say ‘How are chances?’ he will retort in this manner: ‘Come around in a few days and I might have a vacancy.’ He means by this that you will have to wait until he can hire you and make a profit of you.

In order to throw this system over we have got to organize as a class and fight them as class against class.

And so I say we have got to back our forces against them, and our weapons are education, organization and agitation, and read and study up on the principles of Socialism, for it is necessary that you know when to strike and how to strike, and if we have not these weapons when the time comes, we shall not be able to predict the outcome of the fight.

All I know is this, that in every phase of society, whenever a change took place, it was the outcome of force which determined the winning side, so what we want is to educate you to your power, Mr. Workingman, and when we realize it we have the power and the lever to overthrow the existing society.”

-From Ginger Goodwin’s article “The Iron Heel”

CUPW Leadership at a Cross Road

The Red Review — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:24:55 GMT

Key aspects of the CUPW split arises from conflicting strategies and unresolved working conditions in the agreement. CUPW President Jan Simpson and four other NEB members are encouraging a “No” vote, arguing that the deal does not resolve key issues, despite protecting some rights. One faction within the leadership is determined to secure gains in a tough economic environment, instead of pushing for better terms through continued internal pressure. The proposed five-year contract includes wage increases of 6.5% in year one, 3% in year two, and additional increases linked to Consumer Price Index-based raises known as a Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA) for the remaining years, with a range of unresolved working conditions yet to be addressed.

Canada Post has been given the green light by the Liberal federal government to move forward with sweeping service cuts to the public post office. Proposed cuts include ending door-to-door delivery in favour of community mailboxes, closing rural post offices and changing delivery standards for letter mail. The irony is that postal workers are defending the public service that Canadians depend on, coast to coast, while the ruling Liberal government does not seem to care. Postal workers are fighting to stop the implementation of the cuts, demanding a fully public and transparent mandate review of Canada Post that allows for input from all users, and strengthen Canada Post as a vital public service now and for future generations.

The divide highlights a fundamental disagreement within CUPW leadership over bargaining strategy. One side supports securing gains in a difficult environment, while the other is pushing for better conditions through low level pressure. Those who know the history of CUPW need not be reminded that the situation is not as bad as when postal workers won maternity leave for workers. The current vote follows a prolonged labour dispute that included escalating job action over the past two years. More than 55,000 postal workers walked off the job on a national strike in November 2024 after negotiations stalled, disrupting mail delivery across the country. The strike was later halted by the Justin Trudeau Liberal government’s intervention. No amount of privatization propaganda can hide the pain of postal workers as the pay cheque shrinks and delivery routes expand, while the government bails out big corporations every time.

Today, CUPW is at a cross road. Years of business unionism have eroded the rights of workers and the ability of union leadership to protect workers from aggressive privatization agenda of Canada Post. Precisely, the Liberal government tapped into the fears of business union leaders to undermine labour strikes by ordering workers back the work without an agreement. Present working conditions demand that CUPW bring back militant unionism and put up an all-out offense to regain the ground lost before next Conservative government completes the privatization of Canada Post initiated by the Liberals.

Decisions about Canada Post affect most people: seniors, families, workers, and entire communities. Door-to-door delivery is more than just mail. It’s a service people rely on. Postal workers are standing with our community; standing for public service. History shows that private corporations are out for themselves, at the expense of workers and the general public. When gas stations partner with banks to offer credit cards, it’s in their best interest to ensure workers need to rely on credit. If Canada Post continues to belong to Canadians, their presence will ensure that major corporations cannot charge money for the services people need.

The only public service that generates revenue is Canada Post; however, argument of Canada Post losing money is set to benefit the shareholders on the back of workers. Canada Post is reporting losses, service is being cut, and workers are being blamed yet the same board responsible for these decisions is collecting bonuses. When a company claims it’s “struggling,” the first thing that should be examined is executive accountability, not front-line workers. Why are bonuses awarded to a corporate board overseeing losses? Workers are not the problem; they are the backbone of the entire infrastructure. Leadership needs to be held accountable. Anyone who can analyze business patterns can easily spot that the gains of private corporations are simply the losses of Canada Post over the years.

A new Angus Reid Institute poll released in June 2025 found that over 70 percent of Canadians support reducing mail delivery to three days a week to lower costs, while about 60 percent oppose privatizing Canada Post. After constituting a majority in Parliament in April 2026 with three by-elections in the Greater Toronto Area, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals are now positioned to pass legislation without the support of opposition parties. The public has shown support for postal workers, while management is equipped only to draft policies. That leaves the only remaining component -- the will of the CUPW leadership. Union bureaucrats have no better time than now to find the courage, escalate the fight against privatization of public services, and win real victories for postal workers in Canada.

As a former member of CUPW, I was one of the early victims of labour bureaucratic incompetence. After two years of delivering mails and walking the picket line for one month, I received a termination letter from Canada Post in March 2025. My employment was caught between “terminated unless grieved” from the Canada Post, and “no grievance for you” from the union bureaucrats. My active role in the November 2024 postal worker’s strike was perceived to be a threat, and then exercising my civil right to a lawful assembly of Tamil Thai Pongal, a cultural celebration event organized by my Union Local was too intimidating for Canada Post management. Although, the Collective Bargaining Agreement provided multiple grounds to grieve the absurd actions of Canada Post management, the regional union officials lacked courage to defend my employment. After losing my livelihood to the systemic injustice, my belief was confirmed that the fight for socialism goes beyond union gate keepers of the status quo.

CUPW leadership may be able to find common grounds on most issues without disgrace; however, unresolved working conditions should be a deal breaker for any reasonable, class-conscious leadership. My horrific firsthand experience as a postal worker in the GTA is unfortunately too common. Canada Post uses inhumane route lengths as an excuse to harass, discipline, and abuse workers they view as problematic. Workers who take their lunch or restroom breaks are punished, expected to skip meals and to urinate in a bottle, or not at all. Workers who demand safe conditions or report injuries face retaliation. Women, trans, racialized workers, and those involved in the local union’s activities are especially isolated and mistreated. All of this is done under the guise of performance issues; my unjust termination is not an exception.

The fundamental truth about capitalism is that the right to profit supersedes all other rights. That’s an awful condition to exist in a functioning society where well being of one is connected to the well being of all. Therefore, abolishing capitalism is the priority task for socialists because we care about economic justice, freedom and democracy for the vast majority. The post 2020 COVID economy have reignited the need to fight rising social inequality. The rich got richer and the workers got poorer despite the fact that worker output is at an all-time high. Ironically, all the unpaid labour is showing up as record breaking profit for big corporate accounts. Meanwhile, bankers list residential homes for power of sale.

Labour unionism is the fertile breeding ground for democracy. To protect workers, labour bureaucrats must find the will to stand up to the bullies and then demonstrate the courage to do right under all circumstances. The present leadership split in the CUPW NEB reflects where Canadians stand today. The difference of strategies to fight for better among CUPW leadership is not to be frowned upon; it should be embraced as demonstrating the fact that an appetite for militant unionism is not out of reach. Under the profit system, barbarism is the default policy. Therefore, capitalism cannot be fixed. Workers of all stripes must find common ground, and go forward to the socialist future.

Reflections on European Jewry’s Trek from Socialism to Fascism – and Back?

The Red Review — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:23:30 GMT

He recalled his great grandfather as being a Bundist, as were the majority of Eastern European Jewry at the birth of the 20^th century. The Jewish Labor Bund was secular, socialist, and profoundly anti-Zionist. The Bundists fought for dignity and equality, not in an imagined homeland in Palestine but “here where we live”. Molly Crabapple’s just released book “Here Where We Live Is Our Country” chronicles the lives of the Bundist internationalist and socialist leaders and their heroic resistance from Czarist times to the Warsaw ghetto’s worst depravities - a time when the world’s elites were just as indifferent to the genocide of Jews as they are today to the Palestinian holocaust.

Yet just last week the Knesset passed second reading on a “death penalty law” that ensconces the ‘Untermensch’ status of Palestinians in the very the same way that Hitler’s Nuernberg race laws targeted German Jews.

How do we explain this reversal within three generations? Within only one century, and a most turbulent century at that. A century that I believe could have achieved a socialist transformation -- to liberate ourselves from the endless existential wars of capitalism.

Ashkenazy vs Sephardic Jews

Being Canadian of German and Swiss German parentage, when I’m accused of being antisemitic, I usually respond: No, I am not antisemitic, I am pro-semitic.

Let me explain. For centuries Sephardic Jews, North African, Ethiopian, West Asian Jews have been getting along just famously with their Arabic or African neighbors, because they are essentially genetic cousins -- semitic cousins! So, when I am pro-Palestinian, I am also pro-semitic because Palestinians share the cultural heritage that Misrahi or Sephardic Jews share as well.

Ashkenazy Jews on the other hand have a European cultural and genetic origin which brings with it many far different reasons to explain why they were victims of such extreme persecution.

Foremost, among those reasons is of course the Eurocentric religious heritage of Christianity. Invariably Jews were accused of being “Christ killers”. The black plague in the Middle Ages was blamed on often migrant Jews who were not allowed to farm their own land. They were displaced to the margins of self-employment and driven to live in segregated Stettles. That’s where the first pogroms occurred – similar to the West Bank today where Palestinian towns and hamlets are ransacked by mainly Ashkenazy settler Jews, often Russian expats, who are behaving like the perpetrators of pogroms in the Middle Ages. But only now with the full sanction and collaboration of the armed forces of the State of Israel.

The Dreyfus case in France illustrates that anti-Semitism festered not just in Eastern Europe but in Western Europe as well as in Anglo Saxon society. We only need to recall MacKenzie King’s phrase “None is too many “.

The Roots of German Antisemitism post WW I

But let me focus on the factors leading up to the Holocaust in post WW I Germany. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on behalf of Germans by Walter Rathenau a prominent Jewish intellectual in the Weimar Republican government. The treaty was viewed by the German public as a betrayal of what in November 11^th1918 was called an armistice - not at all a capitulation. The treaty ratified only on June 28^,1919,placed an immense burden of debt upon Germany and drove the economy into an inflationary spiral the likes of which the western world has not seen since. It destabilized the society and it fueled the propaganda of the pro-Kaiser right wing elements - blaming this betrayal on Rathenau, culminating in his assassination by royalists.

A second factor was the inspiring victory of the October 1917 Russian Revolution under the leadership of the Bolsheviks. – the first socialist overthrow of a capitalist state. Ukrainian Jewish-born Leon Trotsky led the Red Army that successfully fought off the invading armies of 27 western countries during the decimating civil war. Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin all were leading Leninist Jews. In the German arena Rosa Luxembourg, Clara Zetkin and Karl Radek and many more pro-Bolsheviks were Jews or were Jew-baited by the Nazis. Not to overlook of course that Karl Marx was a German Jew.

Kurt Eisner who led a successful revolution in Munich against the King of Bavaria and had set up a short-lived Socialist Republic was a secular Jew. Ironically, he was assassinated by another Jew who wanted to prove his loyalty to aryan prejudices as a member of the white supremacist Thule society.

Ultimately the forces of the post war social revolution were defeated by the bourgeois loyalist federal forces under the leadership of Gustav Noske, who was the defence minister in the Social Democratic government of Friedrich Ebert. They treacherously decapitated the revolutionary leadership of the Spartacists, later Communist party, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in January 1919.

Hitler’s Hounding of the Bolshevik Jew

Hitler’s Mein Kampf is replete with the hyphenated word “Bolshevik-Jew”. The National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP - Nazi for short) used the phrase “Wer vom Juden frisst, stirbt daran”. Literally translated: - “He who eats off the Jew, will die of it”. The Nazi’s pretended anti-capitalism relied heavily on demonstrating that big capitalists like the owners of the famous Wertheim department store were wealthy Jewish tycoons exploiting aryan workers.

Still, most prominent German artists at the time such as Max Lieberman were Jewish, so were the leading authors Lion Feuchtwanger and Kurt Tucholsky and, leading scientists like Einstein. All of them considered themselves first and foremost to be part of the German society emerging as it was from the most devastating war the world had ever seen. They were progressives and had nothing in common with Zionism.

The pre-eminent political role of Jews in Germany was clearly left-wing at the time and reflected the fact that two thirds of the working class was socialist, albeit divided between social democrats and communists.

Emergence of Oil Imperialism

Another byproduct of the First World War was that the new war economy would be fueled by oil rather than coal. This was the real reason behind Lord Balfour’s Declaration of 1919 that implanted the colonial seed of the Zionist occupation, as well as the Sykes Picot Treaty of 1921 that randomly divided the defeated Ottoman Empire into present day Syria and Iraq.

While still under the British mandate, in order to populate the fledgling colonial enclave, Zionists negotiated the 1933 Haavara agreement with the Nazis. Under its terms Hitler allowed the pre-war exodus of 60,000 Jews to Palestine, but of course confiscating most of their German property. They were less than welcomed by the indigenous Palestinian population, leading to their first uprising, brutally suppressed by the British in 1936.

In the early 50’s over 100,000 Iraqi Jews were airlifted to Israel. These Sephardic Jews had been fully integrated in the social fabric of the Arab world. Judaic targets including synagogues were struck to seed panic and entice the intimidated faithful to seek refuge under Zionism. Recent revelations indicate that these dirty trick bombings are suspected to have been the work of the Mossad. A precedent for the IDF Hannibal doctrine elucidated post October 7th by Max Blumenthal.

Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum of Human Rights will finally open an exhibit of the 1948 Nakba, the catastrophic ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland. The extent to which the current Gaza genocide will be featured remains to be seen. Officially the exhibit is hosted for only a two-year period. Media mogul Izzy Asper has been doing his utmost to prevent its inclusion.

As President Richard Nixon would later put it, Israel became “our aircraft carrier in the Middle East”. The quest for control of oil wealth by America rather than Britain began with the overthrow in 1953 Teheran of the secular democratic government led by nationalist Mohammad Mosaddeq. This is described by many as the first CIA instigated system change, illegal in post-UN terms and was ironically engineered with the very support of the Mullahs. Only to install the Shah’s brutally authoritarian anti-communist regime which lasted until the victorious 1979 Islamic revolution.

From its very Inception Capitalism has Persecuted Minorities and the Indigenous

The conquest of the Americas coincides with the beginnings of primitive accumulation under capitalism. Queen Isabella’s inquisition in 1492 Spain targeted not only Moors but also Jews.

I found surprising evidence of this far afield in the Peruvian Andes. In the tiny town of Celendin only some 100 kms from Cajamarca where in 1532 Pizarro had betrayed and killed the Inca emperor Atahualpa.

We were protesting the police killing of five mining protest leaders – including a young priest –against an expansion of the Conga gold mine operated by US owned Newmont Gold, larger yet than Barrick Gold. In the small-town museum the antique mahogany backdoor had carved in it -- a Star of David! ‘Nuevos Cristianos’, as the persecuted Jews had to call themselves, were driven by the inquisition beyond the headwaters of the Amazon to settle all the way, 2650 m high up in the western Cordillera.

In its first 13 years of operation the Conga mine had produced enough wealth to equal to what would have paid off Peru’s entire national debt. Instead, the poisoned aquifers from the leaked orange arsenic leachate had led to cancers, deformities threatening to destroy the marginal dairy income of the region’s Quechuan population. Ironically the bullet casings that had killed the protesters bore imprints proving that they were made in Israel. The tentacles of the terror state had reached across continents and killed its own descendants.

From Victim of Genocide to its Perpetrator in Only Eighty Years?

In today’s Israel, judging from Gideon Levy, Netanyahu’s genocidal policies enjoy near unanimous support. Two and a half years of impunity for war crimes in Gaza, together with defiance of the ICC and IJC with the complicity of Western governments have intoxicated the overwhelming majority with a deep-seated sense of racial superiority over Palestinians and Arabs in general.

Add to this Trump’s castration of the UN in Resolution 2803, passed last November with the abstention of both Russia and China, and the Donald’s unabashed self-anointment as the highest arbiter of world peace? How much closer to the vanity of a Hitler can you get?

The military offensives in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, combined with aerial supremacy over the whole West Asian region have instilled a mood of invincibility no different than that of the Nazis in the early years of the war.

The latest attack on Iran was presented as a cakewalk, just like Germany’s invasion in June 1941 of the USSR. Hubris lasted until their defeat in Stalingrad in January 1943. With a half million dead and a quarter million POW’s it was to be the major turning point in WW II.

Last month’s words of warning by IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir that his forces are woefully overextended have been brushed aside in Israel’s euphoria.

The pendulum swings back towards socialism?

As the dastardly assault on Iran is now in its second month, I recommend viewing an interview Chris Hedges held April 1^st with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who is a superb, retired military analyst. and served as chief of staff to Colin Powell. Aaron Mate from the Grayzone also provided further insight and Dimitri Lascaris has just given his firsthand impression after an 11-day eyewitness journey of destroyed Iranian civilian infrastructure and the Strait of Hormuz.

Their consensus is that Trump and Netanyahu have bitten off more than they can chew, that they have lost control over the war. Aaron Mate quoted Jim Webb, a third generation US marine, “when you rely on hubris to animate your plans, you’re walking right into a trap”.

Diplomatically Trump has already lost this war with almost all the NATO partners leaving him in the lurch. The mid-terms are severely narrowing his options.

On the other hand, what will Netanyahu do, once Trump pulls back? What did Hitler do after horrendous Wehrmacht casualties deep in the Russian winter? Wikipedia has the answer. If you search Sportpalast Rede, made Feb19,1943 by his consummate propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels: “Wollt ihr den Totalen Krieg?” [Do you want the Total War? ]

Bibi’s use of his ultimate weapon cannot be excluded. Except that the price for using it would once and for all settle the question that Zionist Israel is a state terrorist and a global pariah.

The present conjuncture reminds us of another historic moment in which Teheran featured prominently. Namely the 1943 allied Tehran Conference, called almost a year after Stalingrad. Tehran not only reflected the turnaround in the war following the massive influx of Land-Lease weaponry to rearm Soviet troops, 12,000 tanks, 21,000 airplanes, half a million trucks and 15 million pairs of north American army boots.

Today the fate of Trumpism and Zionism hangs in the balance in this war. Along with the fate of all of humanity. On March 27^th eight million Americans mobilized in the No Kings demonstrations taking place across major cities and reaching into small town America. Canadians stand decisively opposed to being drawn into the fight, as Carney has had to find out.

Finally, getting back to the leftward shift in the NDP, Avi Lewis has fertile ground to deepen his opposition to Trump’s demand that we boost military spending to 5% of GDP.

And in the words of Dimitri Lascaris in his April 3^rd post Why I stand with the people of Iran: --

“…what the hell, I’m going to join the NDP and vote for Avi, because Avi I think at this stage is the best hope we have in Canadian politics. I wish Avi well. I hope very much that Avi will be true to his principles. But I think the acid test is going to be whether Avi Lewis will come out strongly and unequivocally against NATO, against the NATO proxy wars including in Ukraine.

“I know he is a passionate supporter of the Palestine cause and he deserves kudos for that, but it’s all one big war machine, you know you can’t really oppose what is being done in Palestine without opposing NATO, without opposing the Ukraine war, without opposing the military industrial complex and without opposing this criminal war of aggression on Iran.

“So, my friend if you’re listening, buckle up, prepare for the flak but be true to your principles and stand against the war machine. I have no doubt that you will be rewarded handsomely for this by people of conscience in Canada, rewarded politically I mean with their support and their admiration. And if by any chance Avi goes astray and does what every other NDP leader of my lifetime has done and that is sell out, well sadly I’m going to have to take up the task of calling him out on it. And let us hope that doesn’t happen - you’re a better man than that - please prove it to us!”

DRIPA’s Deadlock. ‘We Will Not Back Down’

The Red Review — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:20:49 GMT

First Nations vow to fight the BC NDP in a showdown that could topple the government.

“To say we are frustrated or angry would be an understatement,” said Robert Phillips, First Nations Summit leader, at a Friday news conference. “This is a historical moment for First Nations and we will not back down.”

Eby has said suspending sections of DRIPA before the legislature breaks for the summer is necessary because of litigation risks the province faces.

Huy’wu’qw Shana Thomas, Lyackson Hereditary Chief and a member of the First Nations Summit Task Group, accused the premier of fearmongering and making unilateral decisions.

“We suggest that it is in the best interest of all British Columbians to ensure that reconciliation with the inherent rights and title of First Nations people is reconciled with the assertion of Crown sovereignty,” Thomas said. “That is something that is the unfinished business of Confederation in the province of British Columbia.”

Kúkwpi7 Rhonda Phillips from the Xatśūll First Nation said DRIPA was meant to be a commitment to shared decision-making and it is significant that the government is backing away from that.

Reconciliation can’t be based on unilateral decisions or paused when it becomes inconvenient, she said, adding that First Nations support development when it’s done the right way. “Quit working around us. We are here to work with you.”

Otis Guichon, Tribal Chief of the Tŝilhqot’in National Government and Nits’ilʔin of the Tŝideldel First Nation, said DRIPA is a necessary acknowledgment of Indigenous Peoples’ human rights and that suspending it feels like a betrayal.

“Our human rights are not a threat to this province,” he said. “It is the ongoing denial of Indigenous rights that is the biggest threat to this province.”

When the B.C. government passed DRIPA unanimously and with celebration in 2019, the province became the first to commit to aligning its laws with the 46 articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP.

Eby, who was attorney general when DRIPA passed, says the need to pause sections of the act arose from a December B.C. Court of Appeal decision in the Gitxaala case about mining claims.

In a 2-1 decision, the three Appeal Court justices overturned a B.C. Supreme Court decision and ruled the province had incorporated UNDRIP into its laws through DRIPA and that the province’s mineral tenure system, which allows claims to be staked online, was inconsistent with UNDRIP.

The lower court had already found that the system breached the Crown’s duty to consult under the Canadian Constitution and needed to be modernized to allow for consultation with Indigenous nations.

The temporary hold on sections of DRIPA affected by the Gitxaala decision “is necessary to address the significant litigation risk that that case presents to the province of British Columbia,” Eby told reporters last Wednesday.

The decision is getting cited in other court cases and may lead to the courts requiring the province to amend more of its laws, he said.

“I understand why First Nations leadership are anxious about the fact the province has to put sections of the act on hold until we get clarity from the Supreme Court of Canada or we’re able to find some other path forward with them,” Eby said, “but we just can’t have the very significant litigation risk that is presented by that Court of Appeal case and that is showing up in our courts in a very real way.”

Eby has previously said the government’s intention was always to bring the province’s laws into alignment with UNDRIP carefully and gradually, but that the Gitxaala decision forces the government to make the transition immediately. He has likened it to being made to eat an elephant in one sitting.

The government remains committed to reconciliation, Eby said, noting that the province was settled largely without making treaties with First Nations.

“We will find a way forward with our First Nations partners,” he said. “The work has to continue for the success of the province’s economy, but also to address long-standing social issues that go back to the founding of British Columbia and the separation of Indigenous kids from their families and being punished for speaking their language and practising their culture.”

The B.C. legislature resumes sitting today and is scheduled to meet for just six more weeks before the summer break.

Eby acknowledged there is limited time remaining but said the government will introduce the bill to suspend sections of DRIPA soon and that there will be plenty of time to debate it.

He also said that the government, despite holding the narrowest possible majority in the legislature, has the votes to pass the bill and that NDP MLAs understand the importance of the work.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said “there’s absolutely nothing wrong with DRIPA” and described it as a legacy of the much-loved late premier John Horgan.

“I think the problem is Premier Eby himself and the NDP has a colossal leadership problem here in British Columbia,” Phillip said, adding he believes Eby has kept the caucus from fully engaging on DRIPA.

“I would suggest the NDP deal with their leadership issue or the whole party’s going to meet its demise,” he said.

Phillip said he wouldn’t speak for his wife, Joan Phillip, an NDP MLA representing Vancouver-Strathcona, but observed that she has been a dedicated activist for Indigenous rights since she was a teenager and has gone to jail for standing up for rights.

“She is absolutely heartsick about where this issue sits at the time,” he said.

“As for the other MLAs,” Phillip added, “they need to vote their conscience.”

Adam Olsen, now lead negotiator for the Tsartlip First Nation, was a BC Green Party MLA when DRIPA passed in 2019. He recalled celebrating with some of the MLAs who are now being asked to vote to suspend sections of the act.

“The whole group carries the responsibility,” he said, adding that in his seven years as an MLA he never saw an NDP MLA vote against their party.

“There is a distinct problem at the very top of that party,” Olsen said, arguing that Eby is leading in a dangerous direction and it is up to government MLAs to act. “This is the moment for those MLAs to stand up.”

Others warned that the NDP has long counted on support from First Nations voters, but it should not count on them in the future.

Eby said he believes that regardless of the government’s actions on DRIPA, relations with First Nations will be an issue in the next election given the positions taken by contestants in the Conservative Party of BC’s leadership race.

Potential Conservative leaders want DRIPA repealed and conversations and agreements with First Nations to end, Eby said, warning that would lead to chaos for tens of billions of dollars in major projects and the thousands of jobs and significant tax revenue associated with them.

“There is a very clear choice for British Columbians,” he said.

Reprinted from The Tyee.

Socialist Action’s May Day Statement on Defeating U.S. Imperialism’s Wars

The Red Review — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:12:06 GMT

U.S. Hands Off Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine!

That the US imperialist beast, whose annual military and CIA-plus “national security-” related expenditures, at nearly $3 trillion, exceed the world’s combined total, has already destroyed over the past 40 days much of Iran’s industrial, economic, energy and above ground military infrastructure. Iran’s steel mills, oil refineries, naval bases, ships, planes, hospitals, pharmaceutical plants, bridges and railroads, not to mention whole villages, stand in ruin. Yet the Iranians remain far from defeated – still capable of launching powerful salvos of ballistic missiles, rockets and drone attacks from their deeply underground fortified locations. US military bases in the surrounding US-allied Gulf State monarchies and Zionist Israel are key targets. The Iranian-controlled Strait of Hormuz’s shipping lanes that facilitate the transport some 20 percent of the world oil are largely impassable. “More is to come” Trump pledged in response to Iran’s ongoing military viability in the face of the world’s most lethal power, including bombing Iran, Trump bragged, “back to the Stone Age.”

To date, the US slaughter has included bombings of 30 Iranian universities, 600 schools, and 120 cultural cites. Thousands of Iranians have been murdered and more wounded.

The “f*****g moron” Trump, is a term employed by Trump’s Secretary of State and former Exxon Mobile chief, Rex Tillerson after Trump had left a National Security Council meeting. Trump suggested that the US increase its stash of tactical nuclear weapons one hundred fold. That Trump might well deploy these tactical nukes in the future when vital US imperialist interests are seriously threatened cannot be excluded. The US imperial monsters are far from total restrain, always considering, experimenting, testing and researching new and horrific measures wherein their ever-sophisticated weapons can significantly prevail over all others. Insanity? Yes! But never to be excluded in a world capitalist system faced with ever-deepening crises, ever-diminishing markets, ever-declining average profit rates, ever-increasing worldwide competition and ever-desperate leaders driven to endless wars the world over. It is not the seemingly pitiful off-the-charts crude braggart that Trump daily portrays to his kept media but the capitalist system itself. US imperialism’s endless bi-partisan wars, its imposition of punishing tariffs against its competitors, its expenditure of addition $billions on war, its rigged stock and financial markets and its massive social spending cuts inform us that the system itself is the problem, not one or another happenstance president “elected” every four years in a game that only billionaires can play.

Hours before Trump’s threat to obliterate ever more of Iranian society, the beast appeared to have brokered a two-week ceasefire with Iran, negotiated with the assistance of the Pakistani government. The Ten Point Proposed Iranian Plan, according to the Statement of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, was touted by Trump as a basis for ending the war. But within hours of the “agreement” the Zionist regime, with US approval, launched its most intensive wave of bombings to date, killing over 250 Lebanese and wounding 1,000 more in 100 air strikes over a period of ten minutes.

The U.S. imperialist beast is at war again, again, and again. A few months before Iran, it was the people of Venezuela in imperialism’s gunsights. President Nicolás Maduro and First Combatant Cilia Flores were abducted and 100 Cuban and Venezuelan defenders in Caracas murdered in a high tech attack demonstrating once again imperialism’s ever more sophisticated military capacities and immoral precepts.
Revolutionary Cuba is also in the mass murderers’ gunsights. Subjected to some 65 years of U.S.-backed invasions, blockades, embargoes, sanctions and assassinations, the U.S. billionaire elite one percent, with 1100 military bases in 100 nations at its command, cannot tolerate any nation that dares to rid itself of U.S.-imposed dictators, not to mention a nation that nationalizes land stolen from the people and grants it free to the oppressed rural workers. Today, Venezuela, with the largest fossil fuel reserves in the world, daily finds its resources stolen by the ever-faltering imperialist empire, whose profit rates are in historic decline, increasingly incapable of competing on world markets that it used to dominate.

No to the Bi-Partisan War Machine

Endless U.S. wars are the norm today regardless of which capitalist imperialist party holds the presidency. Both Biden and Trump funded and abetted the still ongoing genocide in Palestine that murdered 70,000 and wounded and displaced millions more. Today’s posturing Democrats, a handful indeed, who supported, if not presided over all previous US wars, are fraternally asking Trump for the “constitutional right” to vote on his newest venture in Iran, a right that has rarely been afforded to any “elected” U.S. institution. In point of fact, citing US “national security” interests, Trump and all his predecessors, have conducted most every war without congressional approval! Stealing the last drop of poor nations’ fossil fuel via war, threats of war, sanctions and tariffs are the imperialist norm, a deadly inherent compulsion that today threatens a world war.

History of U.S. Imperialism in Iran

The same with the US present slaughter in Iran, whose government in 1979 threw off the US-imposed 1953 Shah Reza Pahlavi dictatorship-monarchy, nationalized Iran’s oil and abolished the CIA-created secret police, the infamous SAVAK, that imprisoned and tortured more people than any nation on earth. And this was followed in 1983 with the U.S.-orchestrated 10-year Iran-Iraq War that slaughtered one million Iranians and one million Iraqis. This monstrosity included the US supporting both sides of the war in order to keep competitive Middle Eastern oil off world markets and to secretly raise funds for the anti-Sandinista Nicaraguan Contras via the CIA-abetted sale of tons of crack cocaine in US cities. [See the notorious CIA/Contragate/Oliver North fiasco and read CIA/Crack in America, by Jeff Mackler.]

Courageous Iranians Mobilize to Defend their Country

As we go to press, millions of Iranian are pouring into the streets in cities across their beleaguered country to denounce the US-Zionist murder of Iran’s prime leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and other top officials. They are mounting their nation’s bridges and railroads in massive numbers challenging the US beast to slaughter them in public view! Meanwhile, the kept US media, especially The New York Times, spew out endless lies while repeating Trump’s twisted scenarios calling on the Iranian people to overthrow the Iranian government. At best, Trump and the corporate media note that only a handful of unnamed US war supporters responded. That millions of Iranians have taken to the streets in opposition to the U.S. mass murder and to mourn Iran’s U.S.-slain leaders is clear – an undeniable fact that even The Times has been forced to admit.

That the first bombs were launched at the start of the Iranian school year killing some 175 children was similarly largely ignored or censored as were the countless numbers buried beneath the rubble.

Worldwide, opposition to the U.S. murderous and still ongoing rampage is mounting, but with no nation daring to risk any overt actions that significantly physically defend the beleaguered Iranian masses, lest Trump and his allies to punish them with ever new sanctions, tariffs, if not outright war. We live today in a crazed world of failing world capitalist regimes whose ever-antagonistic components are fully capable of launching deadly, if not nuclear wars to preserve their ever-declining financial interests.

Today, the world stands witness to the colonial Zionist Israeli entity’s saturation bombing of southern Lebanon, no doubt aimed at a further expansion of the borders of the US-allied settler state. Genocide, once again, pure and simple! No different from the genocide of Native Americans in the US and indigenous people the world over: no different from King Leopold’s early 19^th century Congo genocide that murdered 12 million of its enslaved African masses.

Reprinted from Socialist Action USA.

The Socialist Character of Our Revolution is Not a Phrase from the Past; It is the Shield of the Present and the Guarantee of the Future!

The Red Review — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:07:23 GMT

Speech delivered by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, at the ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution, at 23rd and 12th Streets, Plaza de la Revolución municipality, on April 16, 2026, “Year of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz”

Long live free Cuba! (Shouts of: “Long live!”)

Down with the blockade! (Shouts of: “Down with it!”)

Heroic combatants of Bay of Pigs here present;

Dear friends of solidarity with Cuba participating in the 5th International Patria Colloquium;

Beloved and heroic Cuban people;

Compatriots (Applause):

Sixty-five years ago, women and men who were as young or younger than all of us filling these streets today—possibly many grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, or fathers of some of us—gathered here to write a truly epic chapter in contemporary world history.

That day changed history, and not just for Cuba. With an invasion on the verge of our shores, with no certainty yet as to where they would land, but aware that behind the invaders stood the full backing of the powerful United States government, the voice of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, nearly broken by the strain of hours of sleeplessness and tension, rose above the crowd overflowing this historic corner to declare that we were what we continue to be: a socialist revolution right under the empire’s nose! (Applause.)

That declaration is momentous in the history of Cuba, as it set the definitive course of the revolutionary process that began with the triumph of 1959 and which, by 1961, had become deeply radicalized in favor of the traditionally dispossessed.

The mercenaries were preparing to launch themselves against the nation that gave them birth, convinced that nothing could stand against the protection guaranteed to them by the empire. But history would be relentless with them.

They expected fear and found courage. They bet on betrayal and were confronted by a united people. They believed their own lies, and the truth awaited them, with rifles at the ready and singing the notes of the Bayamo Anthem.

The Cuban people marched from here into battle, and from battle to victory! A small nation, fresh from war, would, less than 72 hours later, deal imperialism its first major defeat in the Americas (Applause).

From that fateful April onward, all the peoples of the region would be a little freer.

Cuba changed forever. The people who fought for socialism on the sands of Bay of Pigs had, by then, already begun their cultural transformation with a Literacy Campaign that carried the dreams of the humble all the way to university classrooms.

Human development would reach heights that only a just society can guarantee. This Revolution of the humble, with the humble, and for the humble would go so far that a shoe-shiner under capitalism would become Latin America’s first cosmonaut; that young people from Africa and throughout the Third World would become professionals in Cuban schools; that we would share our blood and our fate with those who had always been forgotten and reviled (Applause).

And we defeated apartheid, illiteracy, and curable diseases in other parts of the world to which we would send doctors, not bombs; teachers, not bombs. That is socialism: a society where man is a brother, not a wolf to man! (Applause.)

When, in the fateful 1990s, the socialist experiment self-destructed in Europe, through vile conspiracies by its imperialist adversaries, Cuba resisted and transformed itself until it rose again through its own strength and the support of international solidarity.

Chávez had not yet triumphed in Venezuela, and the decade of integration sparked by the Bolivarian Revolution was just beginning.

Fidel—Fidel once again, just as he had done at Bay of Pigs, directing the fighting and advancing atop a tank at the vanguard—led that superhuman struggle to preserve Cuban socialism in an era of feverish neoliberal advance and unipolarity.

While others privatized even the cemeteries and parks, blindly believing in the fairy tale of the market as the omnipotent ruler of a wealth that never existed, this country built a monumental achievement, using the science and the human labor and scientific potential forged in the Revolution, and with the heroism and creative resistance of the Cuban people (Applause).

And our people’s army went out to sow and to build, to demonstrate, as Raúl said, that yes, we can! That we can always do it! And we did! That is socialism! (Applause.)

Many times over the years, while the country strove to correct, refine, and adapt the battered economy besieged by the blockade, countless silent invasions took place: laws to codify the blockade, terrorist attacks, smear campaigns, and constant sabotage of all projects of integration, solidarity, and cooperation.

Every silent bomb that fell on development projects has left a wound in Cuban society. A particularly painful one has been the migration of promising young people educated for free in our schools and universities, from whom capitalism steals the skills and talent it did not invest in, while accusing the society that shaped them of failing to guarantee what the predatory market offers them.

Let the truth be told: That human potential, which impresses and gains ground and relevance in any country it reaches, was shaped by socialism! (Applause.) Only socialism turned the children of workers and peasants into top-tier professionals—not in exceptional cases as under capitalism, but on a massive scale. (Applause.)

To hide the genocidal and multidimensional nature of the six-decade blockade that suffocates the entire people—and can only be called an “embargo” on paper by those who impose it—a deceitful and highly cynical narrative has been constructed: Cuba as a failed state.

The impacts of decades of blockade and financial persecution are very visible in our homes, industries, in the lack of goods—even the essentials—in the scarcity of almost everything, even the most basic and indispensable necessities of life.

Also visible are our own mistakes in this process of social construction with unique and very Cuban characteristics, in which we strive, against the tide, overcoming countless obstacles; but as long as the blockade remains a noose tightened around the neck of the economy, no one can deny—and I repeat, no one can deny—its absolute culpability in the suffering of Cuban families! The main cause of our problems is the genocidal blockade imposed by the United States government against our people! (Applause and shouts of: “Down with the blockade!”)

Liars also rely on the numbing effect induced in the minds of a world polluted by prejudice and poisoned by anti-communism ever since the October Revolution brought the creators of wealth to power.

Brutal attacks and blockades have been waged against all socialist experiments, and yet it will be impossible to deny all that they contributed to humanity in terms of balance and well-being. Nor can the colossal contribution of the USSR to the defeat of fascism and the conquest of space be erased from history; nor can the dazzling development of a gigantic nation—such as the People’s Republic of China—which emerged from famine and widespread poverty, and of a small country, yet brave, that endured three wars and today wins the admiration of the whole world for its dynamic growth, the heroic and brotherly Vietnam (Applause).

Socialism is the only guarantee of social justice, the only path to the real emancipation of all people, and in our case it has been and remains, moreover, the real possibility of providing a collective response to the collective punishment that has been imposed upon us all these years.

No, gentlemen of manipulation and lies, Cuba is not a failed state; Cuba is a besieged state, Cuba is a state facing multidimensional aggression: economic war, an intensified blockade, and an energy blockade. Cuba is a threatened state that does not surrender! (Applause.) And despite everything, and thanks to socialism, Cuba is a state that resists, creates, and—make no mistake—a state that will prevail! (Applause.)

Comrades:

Today, April 16, we commemorate fundamental milestones in our recent history: the heroic and massive popular response to the prelude of the mercenary invasion, with the criminal bombings of the 15th, and the declaration of the socialist character of the Revolution, made by Fidel at the funeral of the first victims of the ongoing aggression, and on that very same day, although many did not know it then, our Communist Party was born, as has been explained here.

Fidel put it this way: “At Bay of Pigs, the socialist nature of our Revolution was proclaimed; at Bay of Pigs, our Party was practically forged.” That is why we consider April 16 the founding date of the Party, the Party of unity, the Party of the Cuban nation, the Party that organizes and directs the efforts of all for the good of all (From the audience: Long live the Communist Party of Cuba!) (Shouts of: “Long live!”) But history would be of little value if we did not heed its lessons, if we did not take note of its patterns and transform them into definitive lessons.

The attacks on the airports of Ciudad Libertad, Santiago de Cuba, and San Antonio de los Baños in the prelude to the invasion, with surgical strikes, using aircraft bearing false Cuban insignia; the sustained use of disinformation and deception through media outlets aimed at confusing the population, along with the economic war, diplomatic pressures to isolate the Revolution, and constant threats, reveal cunning practices and methods never abandoned by those who attack and who continue to repeat them around the world today.

They have repeated their aggressive and interventionist tactics so often, and so many nations and processes have been threatened and attacked over the years, that despite the technological, military, and media resources they throw around indiscriminately, a wave of solidarity with Cuba continues to rise as proof of the isolation of the imperialist policy that seeks to bring us to our knees through suffocation.

From this historic podium, where Fidel’s words still echo, calling on the people to take their place in the coming struggle, and where today we pay a well-deserved tribute and homage to the heroes and martyrs of that day when the homeland resolutely donned the militia uniform, we call for a national and international solidarity movement to carry the truth of Cuba to every corner of the planet— the suffering of the people due to the actions of the blockade and multidimensional economic war, exacerbated by the energy blockade, which constitutes genocide given the extreme levels of deprivation to which all Cubans are subjected.

Daily life in Cuba is painful, from the vital rest interrupted first by the blackout and then by the return of power after long hours—which has shifted domestic work to the early morning hours—to the paralysis of industries, transportation, vital services, and production because there is an absolute lack of fuel for almost everything.

The list is very long, and all of this stemmed from a single executive order that declared us an “unusual and extraordinary threat”—exactly what we are not.

Compatriots:

This is an extremely challenging moment, and it calls on us once again—as it did on that April 16, 1961—to be ready to face serious threats, including military aggression. We do not want it, but it is our duty to prepare to prevent it and, if it is unavoidable, to win! (Applause.) We have the faith in victory that Fidel instilled in us.

We believe in dialogue and in the extraordinary power of peace to sustain life on the planet. The history of the dispute between Cuba and the United States has shown that this is possible. We must consider all the human suffering it would cause our two peoples if they were dragged into a senseless, illogical conflict for which there are neither pretexts nor justifications when there is so much we can do together.

To Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, whose centennial we will celebrate in 2026, we pay the highest tribute on this 65th anniversary of the great epic (Applause). (From the audience: Long live Fidel!) (Shouts of: “Long live!”)

Fidel did not merely lead the Battle of Bay of Pigs. Fidel was and is Bay of Pigs!! (Applause.) Fidel embodies the conviction that a united people can defeat an empire! (Applause.)

Resisting the onslaught of daily invasions is the epic we are writing today, the best legacy to the fallen, to those who gave their lives in that April of 1961 for independence and socialism. As long as there is a woman and a man willing to give their lives for the Revolution, we will be victorious! (Applause.)

The socialist nature of our Revolution is not a phrase from the past; it is the shield of the present and the guarantee of the future! (Applause.)

Bay of Pigs is today and forever!

Cuba will not surrender! (Applause.)

No one here will surrender! (Applause.)

We will fight here!

Here, as the song says: We’re going to set it on fire! (Applause.)

Long live the rebellious dignity of our people! (Shouts of: “Long live!”)

Long live Socialism! (Shouts of: “Long live!”)

Homeland or Death!

We shall overcome!

(Ovation.)

Reprinted from Granma.

The Red Review | Issue #31 (Apr 2026)

The Red Review — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 02:57:12 GMT

End Canadian Complicity in War against Iran

by Yves Engler

The US and Israel have launched a massive war of aggression against Iran. Canada has assisted directly and helped pave the way for the war. In three weeks, the US and Israel have killed 1500 Iranians. They’ve assassinated top officials and Israel has said they’ll kill whomever else they want. They’ve also destroyed massive amounts of civil infrastructure, including ecologically sensitive oil and natural gas facilities. At the same time Israel has killed over a thousand Lebanese. They’ve destroyed large swaths of Beirut and are seeking to ethnically cleanse the south of that country. As they destroy Lebanon and Iran, the Jewish supremacist state continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza and displace them in the West Bank.

by Gary Porter

Every day the media reports new outrages, more climate catastrophes, escalating wars and attacks, mass killings, new threats, sanctions, tariffs and assassinations. Most people admit feeling anxiety, discouragement and depression. But some are beginning to organize, develop demands and build huge protest movements. Three recent examples: the people in Iran, Venezuela and revolutionary Cuba who are resisting US military might and the people in Minneapolis who successfully drove out Trump’s racist goons and defended undocumented workers. We are witnessing the obvious decline of the US led empire, the increasing economic difficulties of Western Europe and the long economic doldrums of Japan. From a Marxist viewpoint, society is organized into classes, defined by their relationship to the means of production.

by Kurt Young

In 2018 my mother became ill to the point of hospitalization. She had begun developing stones in her gall bladder which led to a host of debilitating symptoms. Her initial surgical admission at a hospital in Mississauga went without incident. A semi-private room was provided to her pre and post-surgery. After several years of discomfort, the extreme pain returned. My mother was admitted to the emergency ward. Due to her condition not being considered severe enough, she was made to wait 18 hours before admission. When a gurney had become available, my mother was then placed in a staff only hallway for several more hours until a room could be made available. This was a large room with bays separated by thin cloth suspended on a rail and track system. Even at this point in time my mother had yet to see a doctor.

by Tyler Brittain

Hundreds of students, many traveling from universities across Ontario, converged on the Legislature at Queen’s Park in Toronto on March 24. They gathered to protest draconian austerity measures being imposed by the Doug Ford Conservative government. The premier’s sweeping changes to Ontario’s public post-secondary education system include slashing the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) and ending the tuition freeze. The current 85% grants and 15% loans formula has been reversed to 75% loans, or more. This means more debt, higher costs, and more barriers for students who are already struggling with the high cost of living, including rising expenses for rent, food, transportation and housing. This will drive thousands out of school, with grim prospects for the future.

by Red Review

You are reading the 31st edition of our monthly on-line journal Red Review. Front line anti-capitalist militants cover major events, historical landmarks, and theoretical questions from a Marxist perspective, presenting the Socialist Action assessment on significant debates occurring on the left. Please consider a contribution to maintain and help further grow this revolutionary endeavour by sending a bank e-transfer to: barryaw@rogers.com.

by Gary Porter

“Capitalism can’t be fixed.” The contradictions deeply embedded in the capitalist system are irreconcilable, un-resolvable. Canadian workers, organized independently of the ruling class and with an experienced revolutionary socialist leadership, are the only force capable of overturning capitalist rule. To accomplish this historic task, a substantial part of the working class must be organized in militant unions. The unions require a class struggle political leadership, prepared to carry the fight decisively against the billionaires who exploit workers and suppress their rights. Such a struggle quickly involves the capitalist state, the bosses’ police, and their courts.

by V.I. Lenin

The April Theses is a pivotal political document that outlines a series of directives proposed by Vladimir Lenin upon his return to Russia in April 1917. In it, Lenin, a leader of the Bolsheviks, called for the rejection of the existing provisional government, advocating for the seizure of power by the Soviets and the redistribution of land to the working class. The theses articulated ten key points, including demands for the nationalization of banks, control of industry by workers, and an end to Russia’s involvement in World War I. Initially met with skepticism by some Bolshevik leaders, the ideas gained traction among the general populace, contributing to their popular support.

End Canadian Complicity in War against Iran

The Red Review — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 02:35:30 GMT

The US and Israel have launched a massive war of aggression against Iran. Canada has assisted directly and helped pave the way for the war.

In three weeks, the US and Israel have killed 1500 Iranians. They’ve assassinated top officials and Israel has said they’ll kill whomever else they want. They’ve also destroyed massive amounts of civil infrastructure, including ecologically sensitive oil and natural gas facilities.

At the same time Israel has killed over a thousand Lebanese. They’ve destroyed large swaths of Beirut and are seeking to ethnically cleanse the south of that country. As they destroy Lebanon and Iran, the Jewish supremacist state continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza and displace them in the West Bank.

Rather than push back, Canadian officials have justified the US/Israeli aggression on Iran and largely ignored Israeli violence in Lebanon and Palestine. Ottawa has released several statements framing Iran as the aggressor in a war instigated by the US and Israel. The government has suggested it may assist the warmongers by offering “defensive” support to Gulf countries or by dispatching a warship to disrupt Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Through NORAD, hundreds of Canadian soldiers assist the US with monitoring West Asia, likely providing intelligence assistance for US/Israeli strikes. Additionally, Canadian forces stationed with the US in the region and those deployed at Canada’s base in Kuwait may also have assisted the aggression.

What’s certain is that Ottawa paved the way for the war through a slew of measures designed to isolate Iran. By cutting off ties, labelling Iran a terror supporter and sanctioning the country Canada has worked for many years to weaken Iran diplomatically and economically.

Canada should apologize for contributing to the overthrow of Iran’s nascent democracy in 1953 and initiate a full accounting of Ottawa’s role in the coup against Prime Minster Mohammad Mossadegh.

Canada should adopt the following measures to oppose the war and re-found bilateral relations with Iran:

Condemn Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war of aggression.
Declare that Canada will not formally dispatch troops to assist in the war.
Direct all Canadian soldiers working with the US military to halt any assistance to the war.
Bring the 200+ Canadian troops in the region home.
Close Canada’s military base in Kuwait.
Restart diplomatic relations with Tehran.
Repeal a host of sanctions imposed on Iranian individuals and entities.
Remove Iran from Canada’s state sponsors of terror list.
Remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from Canada’s terrorist list.

Capitalism’s Seven Contradictions Threaten Humanity

The Red Review — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 02:31:31 GMT

But some are beginning to organize, develop demands and build huge protest movements. Three recent examples: the people in Iran, Venezuela and revolutionary Cuba who are resisting US military might and the people in Minneapolis who successfully drove out Trump’s racist goons and defended undocumented workers.

We are witnessing the obvious decline of the US led empire, the increasing economic difficulties of Western Europe and the long economic doldrums of Japan.

From a Marxist viewpoint, society is organized into classes, defined by their relationship to the means of production. Under capitalism, a system based on private ownership of the means of production, a tiny minority of capitalists must constantly earn profits and strive to accumulate more capital. Under capitalism, there are three classes: the tiny capitalist ruling class, a massive class of workers with nothing but their labour power to sell, and a middle class of small business operators, farmers, professionals and technocrats.

Capitalism is rife with contradictions which cannot be resolved within the boundaries of its system. To understand the source of the increasing storms and stresses under capitalism and the way out, we must understand these contradictions.

The principal contradictions of capitalism can be understood through the dialectical materialist framework that analyzes the internal and external antagonisms driving its development, crises, and current decline. These contradictions are both inherent to capitalism as a world system and specific to the imperialist stage, of which the U.S. is the current hegemonic power. They include:

1. The Capital-Labour Contradiction

This is the fundamental class antagonism between the bourgeoisie (owners of capital) and the proletariat (working class). Under U.S. imperialism, this is mediated but not resolved by super-exploitation of a global labour pool, financialization, and ideological apparatuses. The results of this irreconcilable contradiction include stagnant real wages versus soaring productivity and profits; extreme wealth inequality; precarious labour; erosion of the social wage (public services); and the use of racial, gender, and national divisions to fragment class consciousness. Financialization represents a parasitic extraction of surplus value from the working class globally and domestically through debt, rent, and user fees.

2. The Contradiction between the Socialized Character of Production and the Private, Monopolistic Appropriation of its Output

This is a core contradiction of capitalism magnified under imperialism. Production is globally integrated and highly socialized (complex global supply chains, coordinated international labour), yet the profits and control are concentrated in fewer, larger private monopolistic firms (transnational corporations, financial institutions) based in the imperial core. This leads to crises of overproduction where the collectively produced wealth cannot be realized as profit because the mass of workers (whose consumption is constrained by low wages) cannot buy back the goods and services they produce. The U.S. “solves” this temporarily through financial bubbles, militarized Keynesianism, and debt-driven consumption, exacerbating long-term instability.

3. The Contradiction between Imperialist Powers (Inter-Imperialist Rivalry)

While temporarily suppressed by U.S. hegemony post-1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, this contradiction elaborated by Lenin is re-emerging. Capitalist states and their associated monopolies compete for markets, resources, spheres of influence, and control over global financial and trade architectures. The U.S.’s relative economic decline and the rise of other powers (notably China, but also a resurgent Russia and a unified EU bloc) create friction. Conflicts over trade, technology (semiconductors, 5G and AI), currency dominance (challenges to the petrodollar), and military positioning (NATO expansion, Pacific alliances) signify the reawakening of this rivalry, threatening global instability and potentially major inter-state conflict.

4. The Contradiction between the Imperialist Core and the Oppressed Nations of the Periphery/Semi-Periphery

This is the principal external contradiction. Imperialism extracts super-profits through the unequal exchange, debt bondage, resource extraction, and labour super-exploitation of the Global South.

It generates resistance in the form of national liberation struggles, anti-neoliberal governments, demands for a New International Economic Order, and efforts at regional integration bypassing imperial institutions (like BRICS). U.S. militarism (via direct intervention, proxy wars, sanctions, and a global network of military bases) is the violent enforcement mechanism to maintain this exploitative hierarchy, leading to perpetual war and blowback.

5. The Contradiction between the Drive for Capital Accumulation and the Ecological Limits of the Planet

This is the imperative for infinite expansion on a finite planet. U.S. imperialism, as the historical leader of the capitalist world-system, is the largest cumulative polluter and the primary architect of a global economic model premised on extractivism and unsustainable consumption. The US has given up any commitment to reduce greenhouse gases, climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource wars. This contradiction threatens the very basis of civilization and creates “ecological imperialism”—where the core offshores environmental damage to the periphery and resists global climate justice measures that would impede capital accumulation.

6. The Political Contradiction: Bourgeois Democracy vs. Dictatorship of Capital

There is a rising tension between the ideological claims of liberal democracy and the reality of capitalist class rule. The state is, in the Marxist view, a “committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie,” but it must legitimize itself through popular consent. This is the fusion of economic and political power (the “financial oligarchy”), where corporations and wealthy individuals dominate the funding of political candidates, lobbying, and media. This leads to rampant political corruption, the hollowing out of democratic institutions, the rise of plutocracy, and a crisis of legitimacy. This often manifests as political polarization, as competing factions of capital (e.g., fossil capital vs. tech capital) vie for state control while populist anger grows from below.

7. The Contradiction of Financialization

While not entirely separate from the above, it is a key feature of contemporary U.S. imperialism. It involves the disproportionate growth of the financial sector (FIRE: Finance, Insurance, Real Estate), which feeds on and distorts the productive economy. This process creates a fragile economy of speculative bubbles, systemic risk, and “fictitious capital.” It represents a shift from the (already exploitative) extraction of profit via production to extraction via financial channels (usury, speculation, asset inflation). This deepens inequality, fuels instability, (2008 crisis) and turns the U.S. into a “rentier-imperialist” state, dependent on the dollar’s seigniorage and its ability to impose financial sanctions—a power that itself provokes resistance and de-dollarization efforts and instability.

Conclusion

These contradictions do not exist in isolation but interact dynamically (dialectically). For example, the stagnation of wages (Contradiction 1) is offset by financialized debt (Contradiction 7), which fuels consumption but creates crises. The ecological crisis (5) both results from and fuels inter-imperialist rivalry (3) and core-periphery conflict (4). The internal political decay (6) undermines the U.S.’s ability to coherently manage its global empire in the face of rising rivals (3) and resistance (4).

Ultimately, Marxists understand these contradictions are unresolvable within the framework of imperialism. They can only be managed temporarily through exploitation, coercion, and crisis, until they generate the conditions for their own negation through systemic crisis and the revolutionary agency of the international working class in alliance with oppressed nations.

At the moment of crisis, there must be in existence a disciplined and experienced worker based party capable of explaining the tasks to move forward and organizing the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist rulers. It is to the building of such a party, that Socialist Action is committed.

The Red Review

The Red Review | Issue #33 (June 2026)

Conference Proclaims a New Socialist Movement!

By Barry Weisleder

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Conference Proclaims a New Socialist Movement!

CLC 2026 Convention Breaks with Zionist Histadrut

New Toronto Tenant Union takes on Financialized Landlords

CANADA STRONG FUND, A Boondoggle to Transfer Risk from Billionaires to Workers

Is War Addiction Really Something to Celebrate?

Who Took the Hit on TMX?

In Quebec and Everywhere, Anti-Racism is Essential to Class Politics

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Leftist proposals that fall short of actual left politics

Class politics is anti-racist politics

La France Insoumise and a way forward

The Red Review | Issue #32 (May 2026)

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Socialist Action’s May Day Statement on Defeating U.S. Imperialism’s Wars

The Socialist Character of Our Revolution is Not a Phrase from the Past; It is the Shield of the Present and the Guarantee of the Future!

NDP Turns Slightly Left

After the NDP Convention - Prospects for Socialists

The Story of Ginger Goodwin, a Martyr of Canadian Labour

CUPW Leadership at a Cross Road

Reflections on European Jewry’s Trek from Socialism to Fascism – and Back?

DRIPA’s Deadlock. ‘We Will Not Back Down’

First Nations vow to fight the BC NDP in a showdown that could topple the government.

Socialist Action’s May Day Statement on Defeating U.S. Imperialism’s Wars

The Socialist Character of Our Revolution is Not a Phrase from the Past; It is the Shield of the Present and the Guarantee of the Future!

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Capitalism’s Seven Contradictions Threaten Humanity

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The Tasks of the Proletarian Revolution “The April Theses”

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End Canadian Complicity in War against Iran

Capitalism’s Seven Contradictions Threaten Humanity