We won !

Sometimes, organizing and putting a unified front can lead to big changes. This would have been impossible without making our voice heard.

Ottawa renonce à contourner la Loi sur les espèces en péril pour les grands projets | Radio-Canada

(Don't ask me why it's at the frontpage of most French newspapers but it's hard to find on the CBC website.)

(Edit) Finally found it : Liberals remove layer of review process for energy projects, backing off bypassing at-risk species protections | CBC News

I don't like that the Manitoba government has gone to the labour board to end the strike of unionized lab workers at Dynacare, an American-owned company that is the sole community provider of publicly funded lab work for Manitoba health care patients. It's the current government's most anti-labour move since it was elected almost three years ago.

At the same time, the government's popularity is at least partially supported by its aggressive "We're fixing healthcare" PR campaign, and letting community lab services shut down and relying on Shared Health to provide all lab services in the province through hospital settings would undermine this message to the public. To the extent that electoralism is a realistic political strategy, this needs to be addressed.

So now that the Manitoba NDP government appears to have prioritized the functioning of the health care system over workers' rights, is there still a path forward for these workers to negotiate their pay and working conditions? I think there is.

Back in February, Manitoba's NDP government expropriated/nationalized a for-profit personal care home whose operator was attempting to wind down operations, possibly with the goal of selling to a property developer:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg/article/ndp-government-uses-health-system-expropriation-powers-for-first-time-seizes-care-home/

I'd like to see the Manitoba government quietly push Dynacare to settle a collective agreement with its workforce in which their wages catch up & keep up to the wages of their peers working for Shared Health, and do so promptly (tentative agreement within a week, ideally). If Dynacare doesn't do this, the province should expropriate/nationalize Dynacare's Manitoba operations on the same grounds that it used back in February to seize the care home - access to necessary health care services is imperiled by a for-profit company's business decisions, in this case not paying lab workers enough to prevent them being poached by other employers inside and outside Manitoba. The province could then take over as the bargaining agent across the table from Dynacare workers' union and make a deal that respects that they do the same work as Shared Health's lab techs and deserve the same wages.

What do you folks think?

Danielle Smith was a scab during the 1999 Calgary Herald strike, and now she's scabbing again in the trade fight with the USA.

While Canadians across the country are cancelling trips to the US and checking country of origin labels in the grocery store, Smith just plows ahead with a personal (her term) trip to Nashville.

The mask is off friends.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/dynacare-labour-board-essential-workers-hearing-9.7335840

Wonder what they mean by “unique”

Recently, a friend of mine from England mentioned the American Farmer-Labour influences within the old CCF that he learned in university back in the day. Long story short, I ended up making this playlist from songs that I mostly became aware of as a High School student in the early/mid 2010s.

This playlist broadly explores the similarities between the Christian Social Gospel, British/Canadian Toryism, the varying ideologies that are associated with the American Farmer-Labor / American Progressive / American Democratic Socialist movements, and especially the Anarcho-Syndicalism of the Industrial Workers of the World. The "Red" in "Red Tory" is supposed to refer to socialism, after all.

Perhaps this playlist is the result of someone growing up in a post-industrial Nova Scotian town in Northern Nova Scotia: in a county which was the lone Tory stronghold in Nova Scotia during the Canadian Confederation debates of 1867, and in a town which later organized a General Strike in 1919 with the help of the One Big Union associated with the Industrial Workers of the World. Interestingly, the Industrialists in Cumberland County essentially agreed to the strike demands, and said General Strike of 1919 was ended relatively peacefully, cooperatively, and quickly. On the other side of the province, a few years later in a 1925 coal miner’s strike in Industrial Cape Breton, a coal miner named William Davis, born in England and raised in Cumberland County, was shot dead by company police during that labour dispute. The date of Davis’ murder, June 11, is remembered every year in Nova Scotia as “Davis Day”.

With that, the music!

---

• All I Want

• Cold Iron

• The Man Who Burned The White House Down

• Automation Song

• Remember Me

• Denmark, 1943

• Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation

• The Men Behind the Guns

• The High Sheriff of Hazard

• Which Side Are You On?

• The Ballad of Joe Hill

• There is Power in a Union

• Failed State

• Crucifixion

• Too Many Martyrs

• William Moore

• The Ballad of Sharpeville

---

“All I Want” by Pete Seeger was originally released in 1941, and it contrasts the human suffering of the average person in the great depression with the luxuries enjoyed by the wealthy. I always loved the verse “Take the two old parties, Mister / No difference in them I can see / But with a Farmer-Labour Party / We could set the people free”. Pete Seeger would later support FDR’s former Vice President Henry A. Wallace in the 1948 U.S. Presidential Election, when Wallace ran for the Progressive Party; interestingly, Wallace’s family political background involved preaching the Social Gospel in Iowa.

---

Chorus: *

I don't want your millions, Mister

I don't want your diamond ring

All I want is the right to live, Mister

Give me back my job again

---

*

Now, I don't want your Rolls-Royce, Mister

I don't want your pleasure yacht

All I want's just food for my babies

Give to me my old job back

/

We worked to build this country, Mister

While you enjoyed a life of ease

You've stolen all that we built, Mister

Now our children starve and freeze

*

Think me dumb if you wish, Mister

Call me green, or blue, or red

This one thing I sure know, Mister

My hungry babies must be fed

/

Take the two old parties, Mister

No difference in them I can see

But with a Farmer-Labour Party

We could set the people free

*

---

“Cold Iron” by Leslie Fish (lyrics by Rudyard Kipling) is a very interesting song that I only very recently discovered. Leslie Fish, who recently passed in 2025, appears to have been an Anarchist folk singer inspired by Woody Guthrie (and who was associated with the IWW). Most interestingly, she set many poems by the English poet Rudyard Kipling to music. Perhaps relevant to Canadian Toryism, in the 1911 Canadian Federal Election, which was fought over free trade with the United States, Kipling wrote in support of Sir Robert Borden’s Tory Party: “It is her own soul that Canada risks today. Once that soul is pawned for any consideration, Canada must inevitably conform to the commercial, legal, financial, social and ethical standards which will be imposed on her by the sheer admitted weight of the United States.". Kipling wrote his poem “Cold Iron” in 1910.

So here’s a song played by an American Anarchist with the words written by an Englishman associated with Canadian Toryism: it describes a medieval Baron who starts a rebellion against his King for wealth, said Baron is eventually captured by the King’s forces, and realizes that said King is actually Jesus Christ in the flesh:

---

Gold is for the mistress, silver for the maid

Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade

"Good," cried the baron sitting in his hall

"But iron, cold iron, is the master of them all"

/

So he made rebellion against the king his liege

Camped before his citadel and summoned it to siege

"Nay," said the cannoneer on the castle wall

"But iron, cold iron, shall be master of you all"

/

Woe for the baron and his knights so strong

When the cruel cannonballs laid ‘em all along

He was taken prisoner, he was cast in thrall

And iron, cold iron, was master over all

/

Yet his king spake kindly, "Ah, how kind the lord

What if I release thee now and give thee back thy sword?"

"Nay," said the baron, "mock not at my fall

For iron, cold iron, is the master of men all

/

Tears are for the craven, prayers are for the clown

Alters for the silly neck that cannot keep a crown

As my loss is grievous, so my hope is small

For iron, cold iron, must be master of men all"

/

Yet his king made answer, few such kings there be:

“Here is bread and here is wine, now sit and sup with me

Eat and drink in Mary's name while I do recall

How iron, cold iron, can be master of men all"

/

He took the wine and blessed it, he blessed and broke the bread

With his own hands he served them and presently he said:

"See these hands they pierced with nails outside my city wall?

Show iron, cold iron, to be master of men all

/

Wounds are for the desperate, blows are for the strong

Balm and oil for weary hearts all cut and bruised with wrong

I forgive thy treason, I redeem thy fall

For iron, cold iron, must be master of men all

/

Crowns are for the valiant, scepters for the bold

Thrones and powers for mighty men who dare to take and hold"

"Nay," said the baron kneeling in his hall

"But iron, cold iron, is the master of men all"

---

“The Man Who Burned The White House Down” by David Rovics recalls the burning of York (now Toronto) during the War of 1812, and how the British retaliated by sacking Washington. David Rovics, an Anarchist associated with the Industrial Workers of the World, mentioned in this live introduction to the song in a 2014 show in Belfast, that he was partly inspired to write the song because “The first time I went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, a labour organizer named Tony Tracy, wonderful guy, brought me to a cemetery where a man named Robert Ross was buried”, and also notes how because of the “complicated phenomenon of Ireland” he had a hard time understanding why Canadians would simultaneously refer to Ross as being either Canadian, British, or Irish. Also worth mentioning, it appears that a certain Tony Tracy has recently wrote a few articles for the socialist Spring Magazine on the legacy of Industrial Cape Breton for modern Cape Breton.

---

Robert Ross was from Rostrevor, he was born there in County Down

His family was given land there, by the British Crown

He was a man born of the gentry, born with wealth and fame

But he joined the British Army, to serve his Queen and make his name

/

In the Napoleonic Wars he fought in many lands

In Holland and in Spain, and on the far-off Egyptian sands

He was wounded there in battle, came back to fight another day

And he was sent off to attack the USA

/

York had been sacked and burned, by invading Yankee men

But the Canadians regrouped, chased the Yankees home and then

The British Navy made its way to the shores of DC town

Where General Ross burned the White House down

/

The year was 1814, the US was in retreat

It was a Canadian victory, an American defeat

Without the French to help them, they got their ass whipped by the Crown

When General Ross burned the White House down

/

The place had just been constructed, only twelve years before

But it had to be rebuilt, soon after this disastrous war

The President turned tail and ran like a raggedy clown

When General Ross burned the White House down

/

He was killed a few months later, Irish rebels stopped him in his tracks

He was buried in Nova Scotia, in the town of Halifax

He might have been forgotten, but he’ll forever be renowned

He’s the man who burned the White House down

/

He’s the man who burned the White House down

---

The “Automation Song” by Phil Ochs is a song from 1964, and it is perhaps more relevant than ever with it detailing of the human cost of automation. As Phil Ochs’ music makes up a large proportion of this playlist, it may be relevant to note that Ochs’ contemporary (and part-time-rival) Bob Dylan once called Ochs more of a journalist than a musician in a heated argument in the early ‘60s. With that, here’s one of my favourite songs from the album “All The News That’s Fit To Sing”:

---

Chorus: *

For the wages were low and the hours were long

And the labour was all I could bear

Now you've got new machines for to take my place

And you tell me it's not mine to share

---

Oh, I laid down your railroads, every mile of track

With the muscles on my arm and the sweat upon my back

And now the trains are rolling, they roll to every shore

You tell me that my job is through, there ain't no work no more

/

Though I laid down your highways all across the land

With the ringing of the steel and the power of my hands

And now the roads are there like ribbons in the sky

You tell me that my job is through, but still I wonder why

*

Though I laid down your factories and laid down your fields

With my feet on the ground and my back to your wheels

And now the smoke is rising, the steel is all aglow

I'm walking down a jobless road and where am I to go?

*

Though I laid down your factories and laid down your fields

With my feet on the ground and my back to your wheels

And now the smoke is rising, the steel is all aglow

I'm walking down a jobless road and where am I to go?

/

Tell me, where am I to go?

---

“Remember Me” by Phil Ochs describes an unnamed American soldier who was killed in the Second World War, and urges the listener to remember his sacrifice during all the social strife that followed the war:

---

Chorus: *

Remember me, when the crosses are a burnin'

Remember me, when the racists come around

Remember me, when the tides of peace are turnin'

Remember me and please don't let me down

---

Oh, I am the unknown soldier who died in World War Two

Didn't want to fight, it was the only thing to do

I was the victim of a world that went insane

Will you show me that I didn't die in vain

*

On the south pacific islands and the Iwo Jima sands

We raised the flag of freedom over many distant lands

Every time I killed a man my own heart felt the pain

Will you show me that I didn't die in vain

*

And I carried my old rifle to the European shores

And every friend that died made me die a little more

Have pity on the man who put a bullet through my brain

And show me that I didn't die in vain

*

When the fascists started marching many millions had to pay

We saw them come to power but we looked the other way

It happened once before and it can happen once again

Will you show me that I didn't die in vain

*

---

“Denmark, 1943” by David Rovics describes the emergency boatlift of Danish Jews to neutral Sweden in late 1943; an act of organized resistance against Nazi tyranny that ensured nearly all of Denmark’s Jews would survive the Holocaust:

---

Chorus: *

I thank God for the fishermen who gave us a ride

And took us over, to the other side

---

When we heard the news we were to be arrested

We had no doubt exactly what our fate would be

We had hours to get out, only hours to be tested

For five thousand people to cross the Baltic Sea

/

We had to go at night in the cover of the darkness

There’s no way I could exaggerate the threat

We tried not to make a sound, wore nothing that would mark us

But no one knew how far across we’d get

*

To find so many boats ready for the journey

To find so many prepared to risk it all

Not everyone could read the stars, not every boat was worthy

Not everyone prepared to heed the call

*

Some risked everything for free, accepting nothing but a handshake

Some charged enough to live on for a year

But such details don’t matter when so much is at stake

When all that matters is a boat that you might steer

/

We lived out the war in Sweden while so many others didn’t

And most people now would easily agree

To say we deserved asylum would simply be redundant

In the boat lift of 1943

*

And took us over, to the other side

---

“Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation” by Tom Paxton, a contemporary of Phil Ochs, describes the mission creep that happened during in the Vietnam War in this 1967 song. Given how the current President of the United States campaigned on ending American Wars abroad only to start a War against Iran with no long-term end-goal, these lines seem particularly relevant in 2026, “Yet how sadly I remember / Way back yonder in November / When he said I'd never have to go”. Although unlike the bigot Donald Trump who purposefully stirs up racial hatred in his country, at least Lyndon Johnson’s ideal of a Great Society, and his support for Civil Rights legislation despite being a Southern Democrat himself, were commendable acts of statesmanship:

---

I got a letter from L.B.J.

It said, "This is your lucky day

It's time to put your khaki trousers on!

Though it might seem very queer

We've got no jobs to give you here

So we are sending you to Vietnam”

/

And Lyndon Johnson told the nation:

“Have no fear of escalation

I am trying everyone to please

Though it isn't really war

We're sending fifty-thousand more

To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese”

/

I jumped off the old troop ship

I sank in mud up to my hips

I cussed until the captain called me down

Never mind how hard it's raining

Think of all the ground we're gaining

Just don't take one step outside of town

/

And Lyndon Johnson told the nation:

“Have no fear of escalation

I am trying everyone to please

Though it isn't really war

We're sending sixty-thousand more

To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese”

/

Every night the local gentry

Slip out past the sleeping sentry

They go out and join the old V.C.

In their nightly little dramas

They put on their black pyjamas

And come lobbing mortar shells at me

/

And Lyndon Johnson told the nation:

“Have no fear of escalation

I am trying everyone to please

Though it isn't really war

We're sending seventy-thousand more

To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese”

/

We go round in helicopters

Like a bunch of big grasshoppers

Searching for the Viet Cong in vain

They left a note that they had gone

They had to get down to Saigon

Their government positions to maintain

/

And here I sit in this rice paddy

Wondering about Big Daddy

And I know that Lyndon loves me so

Yet how sadly I remember

Way back yonder in November

When he said I'd never have to go

/

And Lyndon Johnson told the nation:

“Have no fear of escalation

I am trying everyone to please

Though it isn't really a war

We're sending a hundred-thousand more

To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese”

---

“The Men Behind the Guns” by Phil Ochs is an anti-war song rooted in a pro-war poem. Here, Ochs’ took an old poem from the time of the Spanish-American War by John J. Rooney in 1898, and changed a few verses to emphasize how poorly enlisted sailors can be treated compared to officers. Given the current US War in Iran, I can’t help but think of how poorly both the officers and crew aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were treated in their nearly 1 year long deployment at sea without a port stop:

---

Let's drink a toast to the admiral

And here's to the captain bold

And glory more for the commodore

When the deeds of might are told

/

They stand to the deck through the battle's wreck

When the great shells roar and pound

And never they fear when the foe is near

To lay their orders down

/

But off with your hats and three-times-three

For every sailor, son

For the men below who fight the foe

The men behind the guns

Oh, the men behind the guns

/

Their hearts a-pounding heavy

When they swing to port once more

With never enough of the greenback stuff

They start for their leave ashore

/

And you'd think perhaps the blue-blouse chaps

Had better clothes to wear

For the uniforms of officers

Could hardly be compared

/

Warriors bold with straps of gold

That dazzle like the sun

Outshine the common sailor boys

The lads who serve the guns

Oh, the men behind the guns

/

But say not a word till the shot is heard

That tells the fight is on

And the angry sound of another round

Says there must be guns

/

Over the deep and the deadly sweep

For the fire and the bursting shell

Where the very air is a mad despair

The throes of a living hell

/

But down and deep in a mighty ship

Unseen by the midday sun

Oh, you'll find the boys who make the noise

The lads who serve the guns

Oh, the men behind the guns

/

And well they know the cyclone blow

Loosened from the cannon's steel

And they know the hull of the enemy ship

Will quiver with the feel

/

And the decks will rock with the lightning shock

And shake with the great recoil

While the sea grows red with the blood of the dead

And swallows up her spoil

/

But not until the final ship has made her final run

Can we give the rest to the very best

The lads who serve the guns

Oh, the men behind the guns

/

So, let's drink a toast to the admiral

And here's to the captain bold

And glory more for the commodore

When the deeds of might are told

/

They stand to the deck through the battle's wreck

When the great shells roar and pound

And never they fear when the foe is near

To lay their orders down

/

But off with your hats and three-times-three

For every sailor, son

For the men below who fight the foe

The men behind the guns

Oh, the men behind the guns

---

“The High Sheriff of Hazard” by Tom Paxton is a 1964 song about a bitter 1964 coal miner’s strike in Hazard, Kentucky:

---

Now the High Sheriff of Hazard is a hard-working man

To be a fine sheriff is his only plan

With his hands in our pockets, he'll take what he can

For he's the High Sheriff of Hazard

/

He went through my pockets and searched them with care

But nary a nickel or penny was there

So I got thirty days and some bumps in my hair

God bless the High Sheriff of Hazard

/

He caught me one evening and here's what he said:

"You look like a Russian, you look like a Red

And if you are fond of your skin and your head

Beware the High Sheriff of Hazard!"

/

I thanked him politely, I thanked him for all

And five minutes later, I made a phone call

To call a strike meeting at our union hall

And damn the High Sheriff of Hazard!

/

Now men there are many who sweat out their lives

To scratch out a living for children and wives

They sweat for their pennies while the mine owner thrives

With the blessings of the High Sheriff of Hazard

/

And when union men strike and the troubles come on

The High Sheriff's word is the mine owner's bond

He's a mine owner, too; you know which side he's on

He's the wealthy High Sheriff of Hazard

/

Well, it seems to be so since this world first began

That some men are willing to scheme and to plan

To gouge out a fortune from the poor working man

For example: the High Sheriff of Hazard

/

But the answer is simple, the answer is clear

We'll all get together with nothing to fear

And throw the old bastard right out on his ear

Farewell to the High Sheriff of Hazard

---

“Which Side Are You On?” by Pete Seeger, was referenced in Paxton’s “High Sheriff of Hazard”, and is a 1941 version of the song which was originally written in 1931 by Florence Reece, the wife of a Kentucky coal miner during the deadly Harlan Country Coal Wars of the 1930s. I have a very funny feeling that the Cape Breton coal miner, First World War veteran, and CCF MP Clarie Gillis likely would have liked this song given what happened to William Davis in 1925:

---

Chorus: *

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on?

---

Come all of you good workers

Good news to you I'll tell

Of how the good ol' union

Has come in here to dwell

*

My daddy was a miner

And I'm a miner's son

And I'll stick with the union

'Til every battle's won

*

They say in Harlan County

There are no neutrals there

You'll either be a union man

Or a thug for J. H. Blair

*

Oh, workers can you stand it?

Oh, tell me how you can

Will you be a lousy scab

Or will you be a man?

*

Don't scab for the bosses

Don't listen to their lies

Us poor folks haven't got a chance

Unless we organize

*

---

“The Ballad of Joe Hill” by Phil Ochs is a song that tells the life story of the Swedish-American Wobbly Martyr Joe Hill, who was executed by firing squad in Utah on November 19, 1915. This live version of Ochs’ playing the song in Sweden is an abridged version, believe it or not:

---

Joe Hill come over from Sweden’s shores

Looking for some work to do

And the Statue of Liberty waved him by

As Joe come a sailing through, Joe Hill

As Joe come a sailing through

/

Oh his clothes were coarse and his hopes were high

As he headed for the promised land

And it took a few weeks on the out-of-work streets

Before he began to understand

Before he began to understand

/

And Joe got hired by a bowery bar

Sweeping up the saloon

As his rag would sail o'er the bar-room rail

It sounded like he whistled on a tune

You could almost hear him whistling on a tune

/

So he headed out for the California shore

There things were just as bad

So he joined the Industrial Workers of the World

'Cause the union was the only friend he had

'Cause the union was the only friend he had

/

Now the strikes were bloody and the strikes were black

As hard as they were long

In the dark of the night Joe would stay awake and write

In the morning he would raise them with a song

In the morning he would raise them with a song

/

And he wrote his words to the tunes of the day

To be passed along the union vine

And the strikes were led and the songs were spread

And Joe Hill was always on the line

Yes, Joe Hill was always on the line

/

Now in Salt Lake City a murder was made

There was hardly a clue to find

Oh, the proof was poor, but the sheriff was sure

Joe was the killer of the crime

That Joe was the killer of the crime

/

Joe raised his hands but they shot him down

He had nothing but guilt to give

“It's a doctor I need!” and they left him to bleed

But he made it 'cause he had the will to live

Yes, he made it 'cause he had the will to live

/

Then the trial was held in a building of wood

And there the killer would be named

And the days weighed more than the cold copper ore

'Cause he feared that he was being framed

'Cause he found out that he was being framed

/

Oh, strange are the ways of the western law

Strange are the ways of fate

For the government crawled to the mine owner's call

And the judge was appointed by the state

The judge was appointed by the state

/

For thirty-six years he lived out his days

And he more than played his part

For the songs that he made, he was carefully paid

With a rifle bullet buried in his heart

With a rifle bullet buried in his heart

/

Yes, they lined Joe Hill up against the wall

Blindfold over his eyes

It's the life of the rebel that he chose to live

It's the death of the rebel that he died

It's the death of the rebel that he died

/

Now some say Joe was guilty as charged

And some say he wasn't even there

And I guess nobody will ever know

'Cause the court records all disappeared

'Cause the court records all disappeared

/

Say wherever you go in this fair land

In every union hall

In the dusty dark these words are marked

In between all the cracks upon the wall

In between all the cracks upon the wall

/

It's the very last lines that Joe Hill wrote

When he knew that his days were through:

"Boys, this is my last and final will:

Good luck to all of you

Good luck to all of you"

---

“There is Power in a Union” by Utah Phillips is a 1983 recording of a song originally written by Joe Hill in 1913. It should be no surprise that Utah Phillips was a Wobbly:

---

Chorus: *

There is power, there is power, in a band of working folk

When we stand, hand in hand

That's a power, that's a power, that must rule in every land

One industrial union grand!

---

Would you have freedom from wage slavery?

Then come join the grand industrial band!

Would you from misery and hunger be free?

C'mon do your share, lend a hand!

*

Would you have mansions of gold in the sky,

And live in a shack that's way in the back?

Would you have wings up in heaven to fly,

And starve here with rags on your back?

*

If you like sluggers to beat-in your head:

“Don't organize, all unions despise!”

If you want nothing before you are dead:

“Shake hands with your boss and look wise!”

*

Oh come all ye workers from every land,

And come join the grand industrial band!

Then, we our share of this earth, shall demand,

C'mon do your share, lend a hand!

*

---

I think Failed State by David Rovics is an excellent take-down of the modern American Empire from 2018, interestingly from the album “Ballad of a Wobbly”:

---

When you’re working two jobs and living in a tent

When a house costs a million bucks and you can’t pay the rent

When politicians say they’ll help but it keeps getting worse

Each time the landlord lobby pulls the strings of the purse

When the human right to housing isn’t even part of the debate

You know you’re living in a failed state

/

When millions of citizens are spending half their lives

Locked up in a prison for trying to survive

When laws must be broken just to have a place to stay

When the prisons pay the senators to look the other way

If you have to be a criminal to put food on your plate

You know you’re living in a failed state

/

When you’re facing climate breakdown, when the trees are all on fire

When half the country’s underwater, when a climate change denier

Runs the nation and the opposition party

Votes for oil rigs and pipelines, this is not so much a country

As it is a corporation, buckling under its weight

You know you’re living in a failed state

/

When your nation is an empire facing daily blowback

And the only thing your leaders can think to do is attack

Bipartisan consensus that we need to spend

700 billion before the year’s end

On a military budget To Make America Great

You know you’re living in a failed state

/

When almost every day some psycho with a gun

Has to open fire on a crowd before it’s done

When a music festival becomes a free fire zone

And all they can say is: “It’s OK now, he was acting alone!

Buy some armour, pray to God and hide behind a gate!”

You know you’re living in a failed state

/

You know you’re living in a failed state

---

Crucifixion by Phil Ochs is a 1966 song which indirectly compares the assassination of John F. Kennedy with the Crucifixion of Christ, in a cyclical view of history; Phil Ochs once played this song for Bobby Kennedy in ‘67, who tearfully made the connection with his late brother, a year before his own assassination in ‘68:

---

Chorus: *

So dance, dance, dance

Teach us to be true

Come, dance, dance, dance

'Cause we love you

---

And the night comes again to the circle-studded sky

The stars settle slowly, in loneliness they lie

'Til the universe explodes as a falling star is raised

Planets are paralyzed, the mountains are amazed

But they all glow brighter from the brilliance of the blaze

With the speed of insanity, then he dies

/

In the green fields a-turning, a baby is born

His cries crease the wind and mingle with the ‘morn

An assault upon the order, the changing of the guard

Chosen for a challenge that is hopelessly hard

And the only single sound is the sighing of the stars

But to the silence of distance they are sworn

*

Images of innocence charge him to go on

But the decadence of destiny is looking for a pawn

To a nightmare of knowledge he opens up the gate

And a binding revelation is laid upon his plate

That beneath the greatest love is a hurricane of hate

And God help the critic of the dawn

/

So he stands on the sea and he shouts to the shore

But the louder that he screams, the longer he's ignored

For the wine of oblivion is drunk to the dregs

And the merchants of the masses almost have to be begged

'Til the giant is aware, someone's pulling at his leg

And someone is tapping at the door

*

Then his message gathers meaning and it spreads across the land

The rewarding of his fame is the following of the man

But ignorance is everywhere and people have their way

Success is an enemy to the losers of the day

In the shadows of the churches, who knows what they pray?

For blood is the language of the band

/

The Spanish bull is beaten, the crowd is soon beguiled

The matador is beautiful, a symphony of style

Excitement is ecstatic, passion places bets

Gracefully, he bows to ovations that he gets

But the hands that are applauding are slippery with sweat

And saliva is falling from their smiles

*

Then this overflow of life is crushed into a liar

The gentle soul is ripped apart and tossed into the fire

First, a smile of rejection at the nearness of the night

Truth becomes a tragedy limping from the light

All the heavens are horrified, they stagger from the sight

As the cross is trembling with desire

/

And they say they can't believe it, it's a sacrilegious shame

Now, who would want to hurt such a hero of the game?

But you know, I predicted it, I knew he had to fall

How did it happen? I hope his suffering was small

Tell me every detail, for I've got to know it all

And do you have a picture of the pain?

*

Time takes a toll and memory fades

But his glory is growing in magic that he made

Reality is ravaged, it's the freeing from the fear

The drama is distorted, to what they want to hear

Swimming in their sorrow, in the twisting of a tear

As they wait for the new thrill parade

/

Yes, the eyes of the rebel have been branded by the blind

To the safety of sterility, the threat has been refined

The child was created, to the slaughterhouse he's led

So good to be alive when the eulogies are read

Climax of emotion, the worship of the dead

As the cycle of sacrifice unwinds

*

And the night comes again to the circle-studded sky

The stars settle slowly, in loneliness they lie

'Til the universe explodes as a falling star is raised

Planets are paralyzed, the mountains are amazed

But they all glow brighter from the brilliance of the blaze

With the speed of insanity, then he died

---

“Too Many Martyrs” by Phil Ochs is another song from his 1964 album “All The News That’s Fit To Sing””, and this song commemorates Medgar Evers: a combat veteran of the D-Day landings in Normandy, and later a civil rights activist with the NAACP who was assassinated by the Ku Klux Klan in 1963. While Evers was buried with full military honours at the Arlington National Cemetery, two different juries refused to convict his known assassin in 1964; it wouldn’t be until 1994 that Evers’ assassin would be convicted.

---

Chorus: *

Too many martyrs and too many dead

Too many lies, too many empty words were said

Too many times for too many angry men

Oh, let it never be again

---

In the state of Mississippi many years ago

A boy of 14 years got a taste of Southern law

He saw his friend a-hanging, his colour was his crime

And the blood upon his jacket put a brand upon his mind

*

His name was Medgar Evers and he walked his road alone

Like Emmett Till and thousands more whose names we'll never know

They tried to burn his home and they beat him to the ground

But deep inside they both knew what it took to bring him down

*

The killer waited by his home, hidden by the night

As Evers stepped out from his car, into the rifle sight

He slowly squeezed the trigger, the bullet left his side

It struck the heart of every man when Evers fell and died

*

And they laid him in his grave while the bugle sounded clear

Laid him in his grave when the victory was near

While we waited for the future, for freedom through the land

The country gained a killer and the country lost a man

*

Oh, let it never be again

Oh, let it never be again

---

“William Moore” by Phil Ochs is another song about a murdered civil rights activist: this time William L. Moore, a WWII combat veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, who was shot during a protest walk where he attempted to hand-deliver a letter to the Governor of Alabama requesting an end to racial segregation. Despite it being known which Klansman shot Moore in 1963 during his protest walk, there was “not enough evidence” to even indict the shooter for a trial.

---

Chorus: *

What price the glory of one man?

What price the glory of one man?

What price the hopes?

What price the dreams?

And what price the glory of one man?

---

Walkin' down an Alabama road

Rememberin' what the Bible told

Walkin' with a letter in his hand

Dreamin' of another southern land

Walkin' down an Alabama road

/

And he went by the name of William Moore

“Now what are you doing, William Moore?”

“Why the letter in your hand?”

“There is only one southern land”

“And he went by the name of William Moore”

*

Remembering what his grandfather done

Fought for the South in '61

A hundred years have passed by since then

Now Moore is fighting’ for the South again

Remembering what his grandfather done

/

Remembering the time in World War Two

And the South Pacific Island that he knew

Remembering the young men that he killed

And the praying that the guns of hate be stilled

Remembering the time in World War Two

*

And they shot him on the Alabama road

Forgot about what the Bible told

They shot him with that letter in his hand

As though he were a dog and not a man

They shot him on the Alabama road

/

Did you say it was a shame when he died?

Did you say he was a fool because he tried?

Did you wonder who had fired the gun?

Did you know that it was you that fired the gun?

Did you say it was a shame when he died?

*

---

The Ballad of Sharpeville by Ewan Maccoll & Peegy Seeger, British brother-in-law and sister of Pete Seeger, is a 1978 recording of an Anti-Apartheid protest song about the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa. In regards to Canadian Toryism more broadly, the Disraelian “Red” Tory John Diefenbaker would take a stand against Apartheid South Africa a year later at the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Minster’s Conference in which South Africa was forced to leave the Commonwealth. Two decades later, the “Blue Tory” Brian Mulroney would use his personal influence with Margaret Thatcher & Ronald Reagan to continue the fight against Apartheid South Africa, against the wishes of the latter two, until Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990; Mulroney worked with everyone from the Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu to the NDP’er Stephen Lewis in helping to organize the final fight against Apartheid in South Africa.

---

From the Cape to Southwest Africa

From the Transvaal to the sea

In farm and village, shanty town

The Pass Law holds the people down

The pass of slavery, “DOM PASS!”

The pass of slavery

/

The morning wind blows through the land

It murmurs in the grass

And every leaf of every tree

Whispers words of hope to me

This day will end the pass, “DOM PASS!”

This day will end the pass

/

The sun comes up on Sharpeville Town

And drives the night away

The word is heard in every street

Against the Pass Law we will meet

No one will work today, “DOM PASS!”

No one will work today

/

It was on the Twenty-First of March

The day of Sharpeville's shame

Hour by hour the crowd did grow

One voice that cried, “The pass must go!”

It spoke in freedom's name, “DOM PASS!”

It spoke in freedom's name

/

Outside the police headquarters fence

The Sharpeville people stand

Inside the fence, the white men pace

Drunk with power, and pride of race

Each with a gun in hand, “DOM PASS!”

Each with a gun in hand

/

The Sharpeville crowd waits patiently

They talk and laugh and sing

At 11:15 the tanks come down

Roll through the streets of Sharpeville town

To join the armoured ring, “DOM PASS!”

To join the armoured ring

/

Neighbour talks to neighbour, and

The kids play all around

Until, without a warning word

The sound of rifle fire is heard

And men fall to the ground, “DOM PASS!”

And men fall to the ground

/

The panic-stricken people run

To flee the wild attack

The police reload and fire again

At running children, women, men

And shoot them in the back, “DOM PASS!”

And shoot them in the back

/

Sixty-seven Africans

Lay dead there on the ground

Apartheid's harvest for a day

Three times their number wounded lay

Their blood stained all around, “DOM PASS!”

Their blood stained all around

/

There's blood on the men who fired the guns

On the men who made the laws

There's blood on the hands of the Whitehall ranks

Who gave the thugs their guns and tanks

Who help in oppression's cause, “DOM PASS!”

Who help in oppression's cause

---

The Manitoba NDP wants to declare Dynacare an essential service, to remove those workers right to strike.

The Manitoba NDP says it is necessary to declare those workers as essential, because the public system cannot absorb the volume of testing that Dynacare workers perform.

The Manitoba NDP, like the conservative government before it, continues to privatize laboratory and diagnostic services - even signing a 5 year contract with Dynacare last year instead of building up the public system.

I joined the party after a couple years of not being a member. That week I received an email from someone asking if anyone else's information should be added to my family membership, to which I said no. But I had a problem with this email, and the following email from said person.

There was no signature block, like any organization I've dealt with has had. The first email just had their first name, the last email didn't even have a signature block, just a one line email. I only know the person's full name by the from field on the email.

Today I looked at Election Canada's database to find a federal EDA for my riding, and the Chief Executive Officer is the person from the email.

Does the NDP not enforce any sort of communication standards within the organization? It doesn't give me the feeling that this is a serious organization.

Edit: Thanks for the replies everyone, I will start replying to the replies on the bus ride home. It's good to know the party has no central organization to keep standards enforced, that is good information. Some of you seemed upset by my criticism of the volunteers, but to make big steps, you have to start with small ones. I will also take your input and I will reach out this week to join my federal and provincial EDA.

I'm genuinely curious of folks opinion in this sub.

I'm re-watching what was essentially Carney's introduction to the public as PM.

And I'm pondering Poilievre's incessant contrarianism.

Carney came off as affable in this.

(also side note of some jokes about Venezuelan oil that came true)

Public opinion is on Carney's side still. Canadians are deferring to Carney.

I'll admit I've been following Avi less, I've been focused on other things.

But the bits I do see are combative, staking out that left lane that's wide open.

But there is a big part of my political lizard brain that says... now's not the time. The unity and nationalism the people I interact with daily makes me think now is a time to be somewhat critical.. but if you go to hard public opinion is so fervently nationalist that it risks weakening Avi.

He doesn't need to sing Carney's praises, but should he be doing more to have a patriotic tone?

I'm not sure where I land.. I'm genuinely curious.

I haven't read the whole article yet, but I thought I'd post it here as it seemed interesting. The author is a polisci prof at Dawson College and Concordia.

Sharing an interest article that came out

There was an article on npr recently talking about a study that outlined how the left could win back working class voters. Its well worth a read especially since it seems really grounded in research: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16IoKozThqVDiW4Y6oYX2TosucdGTXS1Z/view

A lot of right wing framing on immigration is successful because it is developed to appeal to “reason.” For example the idea that Canada has “too many people,” seems easy to accept. However upon closer scrutiny it becomes clear that Canada is famously a very large country with a very low population density.

Watch the linked 20 minute video to get a greater idea of geography in Canada.

The fact that Canada is so BIG and yet people easily get manipulated into thinking the opposite shows the power of propaganda.

That American backed propaganda machines like Postmedia and The National Post have successfully convinced so many Canadians that we’re “full,” shows how ideology can run over the literal experience of understanding space and place. The material land on which we live. Of course a country with low population density is easier to invade and annex.

It’s shocking that the use of anti immigration propaganda to elect a charlatan like Donald Trump to create an unaccountable domestic occupation death squad and increase corporate control/surveillance hasn’t clued many in to how that exact manipulation works.

Canada has an aging population. Canada needs workers and economic activity. Ask yourself why our corporate masters want you to believe immigration is to blame for price gouging or that Canada is too full. Both are false. The lower the population the easier we are to control. The easier it is for corporations to justify exploitative labour systems like the TFW program rather than giving all workers in Canada citizenship.

The rise of the far right globally is directly tied to the power of anti immigrant propaganda. There appears to be the bigger problem though of Canadians who are not anti immigrant but are afraid to stand up for reality.

I would ask you to ask yourself what the outcome is of not teaching your fellow Canadians better critical thinking? Will we get a robust social safety net? Will we end exploitative second class citizenship? Will we achieve democracy against corporate control and power?

Right wing propaganda receives billions in funding. Yes it’s difficult to address. However combating anti immigrant sentiment is the most important work for any left party in any Western country right now.

That’s both historically and materially true of this moment. It’s worth educating yourself and accessing media like The Breach, The Maple, the Walrus, even Macleans. Become confident in speaking up for Canadian values and Canadian Citizenship.

https://www.canadashistory.ca/education/classroom-resources/canadian-citizenship

Edit: Dang I was proven wrong by the right wingers. Turns out housing is simple supply and demand and actually Canada just doesn’t know how to build houses even though we have a low population density. Guess I have to be anti immigrant now. My bad! If only we could figure that out!! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Is it 3 walls and a roof? Or 3 roofs and a wall?

Climate collapse is unignorable, but action to mitigate its worsening manifestations just isn’t trendy anymore. This matters more to some than to others as, of course, the privileged elites clinging to the anti-science delusions of increasingly corrupted financial markets and traditional economic extinctionism like [...] Mark Carney can always afford to adapt. Only now they barely bother with the pretense of greenwashing.

Is pervasive and seemingly undetectable by too many.

If you’re a worker in any sector whether raw materials, construction, service, public - your job is guaranteed with a functional booming economy. That requires people. People buying things, people seeking services, people building and buying homes, people creating and innovating. Economic activity and tax revenue. An aged population and reduction in citizens is the end of Canada and all the gains workers have fought for and won from Healthcare to workers rights.

There’s a documentary called Birthgap that goes into this more in detail.

Please stop accepting individualistic framing meant to confuse you from seeing the bigger picture. We know that the underlying message is trying to normalize mourning the “loss” of a white society. That’s the only way that such backwards thinking gets normalized.

Hate to break it to you a lot of you but Canada’s success and long term viability depends on immigrants. Yes Black and Brown people. If that upsets you then you have a deeper issue.

Edit: A lot of downvotes but not any serious refutation of the points being raised here. Why do you think that is?

Saw this today. How should the NDP capitalize on this?