CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES

Fund Our Schools

Parents, teachers and labour continue to push back against the Ford government’s cuts to school boards.

Parents have noted that underfunding has led to schools that have no air conditioning, washrooms that sometimes have no toilet paper and hand soap, and not enough cleaning staff.

Angry about the cuts that have reduced education to bare bone? Please take action and send a message to the Premier and Education Minister.

40th annual Mayworks Festival

Mayworks 2025 bears witness to the strength, struggle and imagination of communities seeking labour justice.

Whether working in multi-channel video, experimental film, a walking tour, sculpture-based installation, poetry, theatre, or the painting of a large mural on the east side of the Steelworkers Building, the artists work within an honoured tradition of artistic practices engaged in social change.

mayworks.ca

“Basta! No More Fear!”

When: May 7, 8, 9, 10 at 7:30pm and 11th at 2pm
Where: Steel Workers’ Hall, 25 Cecil St

The Toronto Workers’ Theatre Group presents an original play about the tragic deaths of five Italian immigrant labourers in a fire in a watermain tunnel they were working in at Hoggs Hollow. This disaster ignited widespread outrage that prompted extensive press coverage, a new wave of union organizing, and eventually, major reforms to Ontario’s health and safety regulations.

eventbrite.ca

Revisiting Toronto’s growth machine

When: May 8th, 1:30pm
Where: York University, Kaneff Tower

Sébastien Lambelet will present preliminary results of the field research he is conducting in Toronto for about a year. Since his arrival in this large and fascinating city, Sébastien is puzzled by the way city politics constantly gets influenced by higher level of governments and market changes, thereby making city authorities unable to properly plan and steer urban development. In this context, Sébastien will argue that Toronto is currently governed by a “regime of throwntogetherness.”

Moderator: Roger H Keil. Discussants: Stefan Andreas Kipfer and Ute A Lehrer.

yorku.ca

Life and Death Consequences of Access to Housing

When: May 9th, 12-2pm
Where: Daphne Cockwell Complex (DCC) Room 707/709, 288 Church St

Join us for a screening of Liz Carr’s documentary, Better Off Dead?, which takes a disability activist analysis to explore different perspectives of medical assistance in dying. After the screening will be a Death Cafe that will discuss disabled people’s life and death chances within a culture in which medical assistance in dying, coupled with a lack of adequate social services and supports, may make it easier to access death than to access life.

Part of the housed…[un]housed…[re]housed symposium | Register here

77 Years. Nakba. Genocide.

When: May 9th, 6pm
Where: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave

Through film and discussion, this program confronts the ongoing realities of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, bridging the trauma of the 1948 Nakba with the livestreamed genocide of Palestinians today.

This event invites audiences to bear witness, engage critically, and stand in solidarity. Our esteemed experts, Michael Lynk, Wadie Said, Esmat ElHalaby, and moderated by Dania Majid will discuss present day challenges Palestinians, and allies, are experiencing in their advocacy work.

zeffy.com

Outreach at Dufferin Station

When: May 10th, 2pm
Where: northwest corner of Dufferin and Bloor

Join us to speak to transit riders at Dufferin Station to advocate for more reliable, fast and frequent bus service. We will be calling for the installation of transit-only lanes and asking riders to speak up in support of transit-only lanes. No experience is required, just show up!

ttcriders.ca

MayWorks: CUPW Labour History Walking Tour

When: May 11th, 1pm
Where: Meet at the Royal York Hotel, near the intersection of York St & Front St, 100 Front St W

The walking tour passes by important CUPW workplaces in Canada and other spaces of gatherings including the site of the original convention of union delegates who approved the formation of the union. Held on Mother’s Day as CUPW brought us maternity and parental leave.

mayworks.ca | eventbrite.ca

Canadian Foreign Policy Hour with Yves Engler

When: Mondays at 6pm

Join author Yves Engler on Mondays for a weekly news roundup and interactive discussion about Canada’s role abroad. This weekly session will delve into the latest developments on subjects ranging from military affairs and Canada’s role in Ukraine to its contribution to Palestinian dispossession, and the exploitation of African resources. Join Yves for a critical take on Canada’s foreign policy. Questions, comments, and criticisms are all welcome.

zoom.us

Safeguarding Canada’s Sovereignty

When: Wednesday, May 14th, 7pm
Where: 60 Lowther Ave

Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia. He is also the Co-Director of the Outer Space Institute. Dr. Byers has been a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University; Professor of Law at Duke University; Visiting Professor at the universities of Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Nord (Norway) and Novosibirsk (Russia) as well as the Geneva Graduate Institute; and Senior Global Fellow at the University of St Andrews.

eventbrite.ca | zoom.us

Divest Ontario’s University Pension Plan from Genocide, Occupation and Apartheid

By Workers’ Campaign for UPP Divestment

The University Pension Plan (UPP) is now the recommended pension plan for institutions of higher education in Ontario. Currently, it manages $11.7-billion worth of pension assets. Workers at the University of Guelph, Trent University, University of Toronto, and Queen’s University are already enrolled in the plan, and workers at Laurier University and the University of Ottawa have recently signed memoranda of agreement. Fourteen other university sector organizations also pay into UPP.

Source: The Bullet No. 3130

Trump’s Tariffs: Fake Problems, Fake Solutions

By Socialist Project

Trump is mad. Mad at the world. Mad at anyone who challenges him. Mad in his actions. Tariffs, a tax on goods coming into the US, are Trump’s weapon of choice to “make America great again.” Tariffs are Trump’s magic bullet to end fifty years of the US importing more than exporting, bring manufacturing jobs back, and serve as a cash cow to shift a greater share of the burden of running the American Empire onto other countries, friend and foe alike. The far right has been successful in many countries mobilizing popular frustrations. But it has no program that can deliver on its promises.

Source: The Bullet No. 3131

No Labour for Genocide – No Complicity with Apartheid

Israel is only able to continue its livestreamed genocide against Palestinians, including daily massacres, burning our children, men and women alive, or starving and thirsting them to death, due to the ongoing complicity of states, companies and institutions around the world. On this May Day, a historic day for the international labour movement that commemorates the struggles of workers for dignity and justice, as Palestinian trade and professional unions, we urgently renew our call to unions around the world to escalate all effort to end this shameful complicity in Israel’s illegal occupation, colonial apartheid and genocide.

Source: The Bullet No. 3132

Put Your Solidarity Into Action to Stop the Genocide

To the Free Trade Unions in the United States of America and to every free worker and trade unionist fighting for justice, freedom, and human dignity. We salute you on the eve of International Workers’ Day, a day that embodies the unity and solidarity of workers in confronting oppression and exploitation. We raise to you the voice of Gaza’s workers, who today stand at the forefront of confronting the most heinous forms of genocide, siege, and starvation, imposed on our people for decades and continuing to this day with direct support from the US administration under Donald Trump, and previous administrations, in blatant violation of all humanitarian and international laws.

Source: The Bullet No. 3133

A Left Program for the Future of Labour

Raquel Cardeira Varela obtained her PhD in Political and Institutional History at ISCTE, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, in 2010. She is a social and labour historian, researcher and Professor at New University of Lisbon, and Honorary Fellow at the International Institute for Social History. She is the author of People’s History of the Portuguese Revolution, A People’s History of Europe From World War I to Today, among more than 40 books written and/or coordinated. In her numerous books and 60+ articles, she has written about labour and everyday life, internationalism, education and emancipation, and living conditions under capitalism.

Source: LeftStreamed