The Red Review | Issue #35 (August 2026)

A Socialist Action Journal

Canada Out of NATO!

By Barry Weisleder

Ten days ago, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) gathered in Ankara, Turkiye. Their Summit meeting revealed a festering conflict. On one hand, we see dramatically increasing military spending, along with more belligerence globally. On the other hand, there is growing internal division, along with more international resistance. Last year’s NATO Summit was unable to reach agreement on its basic mission. This year, divisions have deepened. Member states struggled to concur on support for Ukraine; they could not find common ground on Iran; and notably, Spain refused to commit to the 5% of GDP spending target. In response, US President Donald Trump lashed out. He branded Spain a “terrible partner” and ordered his Treasury Secretary to cut off trade with the European country, all while reviving his threat to annex Greenland — the territory of a fellow NATO member.

The Case against Capitalist Data Centres

By Gary Porter

The global data center boom—driven overwhelmingly by the artificial intelligence revolution—is being touted as progress. But beneath the glossy promises of digital innovation lies a stark reality: data centers are extractive, resource-devouring machines that impose severe costs on the communities that host them, while delivering meager local benefits. The facts demand scrutiny. Marxists are not Luddites. We do not oppose new technology because we resist change or fear machines. Marxists advocate for massive productivity improvements that humanize and reduce labour, and increase the quality and abundance of goods and services that enrich the quality of human life for all, within the finite limits of the earth’s resources. We know that the critical obstacle blocking us from attaining this goal is the private ownership, by a tiny parasitic class of capitalists, of the means of production.

Queer Liberation through Socialist Revolution

By Socialist Action

Warmest solidarity greetings from Socialist Action/ Ligue pour l’Action Socialiste for Pride 2026. We are happy again to congratulate The No Pride in Policing coalition and Queers4Palestine for organizing. Over the past year the continuing growth of the hard right, both internationally and in “Canada” makes the struggle to defend queer and trans rights ever more urgent. Ten years after the enshrining of inalienable rights for transgender people in Canada, cultural attacks continue to pose a threat. Conservative ideologues and grifters pushing the anti-trans “gender critical“ agenda have weaseled their way into every provincial parliament and the national Anti-Trans Legislative Risk index stands at “moderate with imminent risk”. The struggle for trans rights will be a long one.

Resist Carney’s Pro Billionaire Agenda

By Yves Engler

A CEO summit in Toronto highlights Mark Carney’s corporate, wealth-concentrating policies. The September get to together of the “the world’s largest investors” should be protested. Last month the Liberals passed legislation granting cabinet the power to authorize the use of pesticides Health Canada has already deemed unsafe. In effect, Bill C-30 gives cabinet the ability to overrule science in the service of corporate profits. Also last month Carney announced that part of his plan to improve housing affordability was to bail out corporate condo developers unable to sell already built million-dollar units. Rather than build social housing, $1.5 billion of federal money will go to bailout capitalists who’ve sought to maximize profits.

A Marxist Theory of Crisis in the Contemporary World

By Michael Roberts

What do you think is the core idea of Marxism? What’s the relationship between historical materialism and the critique of political economy? The core ideas of Marxism can be reduced to two key concepts: First, the history of human organisation since primitive times is the history of class struggle. The materialist conception of history is that change for better or worse is driven by the material interests of classes and, in particular, by the ruling class (feudal lords, capitalist companies) and the working class. While individuals can play key roles at moments in history (decisions and actions by kings or by revolutionary leaders), in the final analysis, change depends on economics and classes. As Marx said: “men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.”

The Shadow of Minneapolis: 2026 Labor Notes Conference

by Sou Mi

At the most overtly political Labor Notes Conference in recent years, the experience of the Twin Cities stretched over everything, and exposed a rift between a rank and file ready to fight and a leadership still looking to November. More than 4,000 workers, organizers, and self-described “troublemakers” braved brutal weather and travel changes to pack into a Chicago-area hotel this past weekend for the 2026 Labor Notes Conference, filling nearly 300 workshops, panels, and meetings over three days.By most measures, this was the largest and most explicitly political iteration of the biennial gathering in recent years. As always, it served as a barometer of what’s animating the labor movement’s most advanced sectors. If the 2022 conference was shaped by the wave of new organizing that gripped the country after the pandemic, from Amazon to Starbucks, and 2024 carried the experience of the UAW’s stand-up strikes and Shawn Fain’s call for a 2028 general strike,

Strategic Debates in the Struggle for Quebec Independence

By Bernard Rioux

The Quebec sovereignty movement has never been a monolithic bloc. From its inception, it has been riddled with deep tensions that extend beyond electoral strategies, referendum timetables, and partisan alliances to a far more fundamental question: what kind of independence do we want, for whom, and by what means? How do the main actors position themselves in relation to this essential issue? What kind of consultation should be offered to the people of Quebec? How should we assess the current situation surrounding the prospect of fighting for independence?1. The federalist bloc: managing dependency and denying the self-determination of oppressed nations within the Canadian state. To answer these questions, we must begin with two essential observations. First, the Canadian state was built on national oppression—of the French-Canadian nation, of Indigenous and Inuit peoples, and of the Acadian people.