The Red Review | Issue #27 (Dec 2025)
A Socialist Action Journal
Hands Off Venezuela
by Yves Engler
NDP MPs and party leadership candidates are more cautious than Paris and London in challenging Trump’s war on Venezuela. Even the admiral in charge of the US violence appears more willing to buck the Donald. The largest aircraft carrier in the world, USS Gerald Ford, has arrived in the Caribbean as part of Trump’s bid to overthrow Venezuela’s government. The US has also sent other naval vessels, B-1 bombers and thousands of troops to intimidate, including Special Forces flying helicopter patrols from the warships along the Venezuelan coast. Trump has also empowered the CIA to conduct sabotage operations inside the country. During the past two months the US has blown up at least 20 boats, killing about 70 Venezuelans, Colombians and Trinidadians.
Billionaire Housing Speculators Put Greed Before Need
by Gary Porter
This year, Canada’s household debt climbed to $3.07 trillion, topping the G7 for the 15th consecutive year. With debt—including mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards—growing faster than incomes, this trend shows no sign of slowing. As individuals and small businesses fall behind on loan payments there is evidence that this enormous burden is already straining Canadians’ finances. As a society, we are in danger of insolvency. A sharp drop in employment—potentially triggered by tariffs, rising mortgage costs, a slowdown in lending, or sudden price shocks—could easily push overleveraged families into bankruptcy, with destabilizing consequences for the entire economy.
NDP Caves to Liberal War Budget
by Barry Weisleder
The federal Liberal minority government tabled its first budget on November 4. As predicted, it proved to be a war budget, one that steals tens of billions from health, education, public services, and climate action in order to pour it into quadrupling Canadian military spending and buying American weapons systems. By way of comparison, there is $81 billion over 5 years going to the armed forces, and only $13 billion to build affordable housing. The federal budget includes tax cuts for the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country, increased border militarization, and attacks on migrants. It presents ongoing subsidies to new fossil fuel infrastructure, mega pipelines, and large-scale extraction projects, to be erected across Indigenous lands without Indigenous consent.
The U.S. Left and Mamdani’s Victory
by Jeff Mackler
New York City’s mayor-elect Democrat Zohran Mamdani is today crisis-ridden capitalism’s most recent maneuver to channel rising working class militancy back into the imperialist, racist, sexist, homophobic genocidal, warmongering and climate catastrophe engineering Democratic Party. Tragically, both before and after Tuesday’s, Nov. 4 election, less than a handful of the “left” took a principled position rejecting support to Democrat Mamdani. Most were wooed to his radical-sounding but ruling class camp by Mamdani’s broad range of pseudo-socialist “affordability” rhetoric, populist promises, accompanied by his dynamic speaking style. The fact that his opponents in the race, the current mayor Eric Adams and former governor Andrew Cuomo, were corrupt and discredited old school politicians was undoubtedly also a factor. The official ruling rich had no credible candidate in the race.
Ecosocialism and Degrowth in the Anthropocene
by Peter Boyle
A statement issued by hundreds of scientists and others at the Global Tipping Points Conference, held at the University of Exeter on June 30-July 3 began with this rim prediction: “Global warming is projected to exceed 1.5°C within a few years, placing humanity in the danger zone where multiple climate tipping points pose catastrophic risks to billions of people.” Current warming, the statement explained, has activated “irreversible changes and every fraction of additional warming dramatically increases the risk of triggering further damaging tipping point.” If this assessment is correct, any significant revolutionary change that takes place this century will have to do so amid catastrophic global climate change.
Sudan: Revolution, War and Imperialism
by Muzan Alneel
After 15 months of war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, reports from the United Nations (UN) show the depth of the humanitarian crisis in the country. Although there are no reliable figures for the toll of dead and injured civilians, more than ten million Sudanese have been displaced and half of the 44 million population is facing real threats of famine.1According to a recent statement by the spokesperson for the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee, 19 million children are out of education. Although the war in Sudan rarely makes headlines in the same way as the atrocities in Gaza, it has triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis.
Refuting CBC’s Allegations: Cuba’s International Workers and the Ethics of Collective Contribution
by Canadian Network on Cuba
Recent reports from CBC News have revived long-standing and misleading allegations that the Cuban government “confiscates” the wages of Cuban professionals working abroad — this time targeting Cuban specialists employed in Canada through joint ventures such as those between Cuba’s state nickel company and Sherritt International. These claims—largely based on anonymous testimonies and ideologically biased sources—grossly distort the principles and practices underpinning Cuba’s international labour arrangements. Far from being an exploitative or coercive system, the Cuban approach reflects a profoundly different social contract: one rooted in solidarity, collective responsibility, and the redistribution of wealth to sustain. universal access to education, healthcare, and social welfare.
We Can’t Police Our Way Out of Social Problems
by Alexa Cicchini
Why are police budgets the single largest expense in every city’s budget? Far more is spent on policing than is spent on public health, housing support, transit, parks, libraries, or social services. Every year, police budgets increase while wages fall, the cost of living rises, and social supports are defunded. Carolyn Parrish, Mayor of Mississauga, resigned from the Police Services Board after police requested a 23.3 percent budget increase for the coming year. Why is policing the go-to option for addressing social problems? Cities pay police to dismantle encampments of unhoused people instead of investing in housing supports. They pay police to arrest drug users and sex workers instead of meeting people’s medical and material needs.