On to Ottawa for the People’s Social Forum!
2014 2014-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 10 →
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Over 10,000 people will gather in Canada’s capi tal city, Ottawa, Ontario, Aug. 21-24, for the Peo ples’ Social Forum. The PSF web site describes it as “a critical public space aimed at fostering ac tivist involvement of individuals and civil society organizations that want to transform Canada as it exists today.
“It is intended as a space for social movements to meet and converge, for the free expression of alternative ideas and grassroots exchanges and for artistic manifestations reflecting a diversity of demands and aspirations.”
“It seeks to stimulate practical involvement and alliances for action against neo-liberal policies in Canada. The PSF strives for social justice, Original Peoples’ rights, sustainable development, interna tional solidarity and participatory democracy.”
10 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 2014 Socialist Action/Ligue pour l’Action socialiste will host a workshop titled “The fight against capi talist austerity is also a fight against the leader ship of the unions and the NDP.” SA/LAS members from Hamilton, Toronto, Kingston, and Montreal will staff a literature display, demonstrate with thousands on to Parliament Hill, and partici pate in an assembly of labour militants aimed at launching a cross-union, cross-country labour left opposition.
The PSF is part of the global movement of social forums that have emerged at different levels since the first World Social Forum (WSF) was held in Porto Alegre (Brazil) in January 2001. The latest World Social Forum, in March 2013, was held in Tunis, which will be the site of the 2015 gather ing. — B.W. struggle for bread and butter improvements at the front door of the legislature. It is anti-political, or at best, a stunted form of politics. Worst of all, it gives the present leadership of the working class a free hand to continue the sell-out. That includes so-called strategic voting, which favours the Liberal Party. We saw what that means when Gerry Dias, the President of UNIFOR, was shown on TV at the Liberal victory party congratulating Kathleen Wynne.
The NDP is the only mass, labour-based political party in North America. To understand the signifi cance of that, just look at politics in the United States. The NDP remains a workers’ party, which is obvi ous to anyone who has been to an NDP convention. But the NDP has a staunchly pro-capitalist leader ship that is out of step with reality, that is, seemingly oblivious to the extremely destructive decline of late The struggle for a Workers’ Agenda will take place (continued on page 11, in “What does Karl Marx have to do with Karl Lagerfeld?”)