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Sam Gindin was research director of the Canadian Auto Workers from 1974–2000. He is co-author (with Leo Panitch) of The Making of Global Capitalism (Verso), and co-author with Leo Panitch and Steve Maher of The Socialist Challenge Today, the expanded and updated American edition of which is forthcoming from Haymarket in 2020.
Leo Panitch saw no other option than to act as if socialism and a world free of exploitation could be won in the here and now, his longtime collaborator Sam Gindin writes. Despite knowing that socialism was unlikely to emerge in his lifetime, Panitch devoted himself fully to a project that could liberate generations of people to come.
Despite some promising signs, Canada’s auto industry is not experiencing a full rebirth. Any revitalization of the industry, and any transition to green manufacturing, will always be unstable under capitalism, because private auto corporations don’t make decisions with workers and the planet in mind.
It’s not enough to make class the subject of our politics. We need to develop our political demands from a ferment that is rooted in class organizing and union density.
Coronavirus has exposed capitalism as unable to meet our most basic needs, but that has never been enough for the Left. We need to develop democratic organizations and build our social power, even in the middle of a pandemic, to win.
Jane McAlevey believes in the potential of working people to unite across divisions, develop their collective potentials into a creative social force, and change the world. Her new book offers concrete tactics and practices for how workers can win more battles — and prepare for the larger wars to come.
The GM strike was a reminder of two old lessons: rank-and-file militancy is the foundation of working-class struggle. But to win, we need a broader socialist politics that can both support worker organizing and push it further.
Socialists have to wrestle with the tricky questions about the nuts and bolts of socialism. We need to put forward a credible vision of a future socialist society. Here’s what that society could look like.
Socialists can’t wave away concerns about the feasibility of a future socialist society — we need to offer people credible answers.
What can workers and communities do when the company pulls the plug on an entire workplace? Tariffs and boycotts won’t cut it — the only answer is democratic planning.
Canadian union organizer and leader Bob White was committed to charting an independent and democratic course for workers.
The response to Bernie showed that a socialist party in the United States is possible. But there is no shortcut to building power.
Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts provides a dynamic framework for building union power.
Canadian autoworkers are demanding control over companies’ investments. Will it work?
Bringing together weak unions and weak social movements isn’t enough. We need a new kind of socialist party.
Worker ownership and cooperatives will not succeed by competing on capitalism’s terms.
The struggle against overwork can unite workers and help rebuild the labor movement.
What would constructive pressure on the Syriza government look like?
There’s much talk of stagnation in the American economy. But radicals shouldn’t assume capitalism is on its last legs.
Naomi Klein rightly blames capitalism for climate change. But she doesn’t go far enough.
Ending dues check-off will not reverse the labor movement’s bureaucratization and conservatism.