Canada

The Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec was the victim of a brutal atrocity, a bit before 8pm Sunday evening, where one man opened fire, killing six people and wounding a further eight. The thirty-nine other people who were gathered for a night prayer were unharmed. Fightback strongly condemns this cowardly attack on the Muslim community and we offer our condolences and our solidarity to the victims and their families.

Over 100 people gathered on U.S. Inauguration Day for the United Against Trump Town Hall held at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. The event was hosted by a coalition of organizations led by the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency, Fightback. Others who supported the event included the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW), the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario (CFS-O), the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario (CUPE) and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).

Tomorrow, tens of thousands of people will gather in Montreal for the World Social Forum. This is an important gathering of unions, left groups and anyone looking to fight for a better world. The Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency - Fightback/La Riposte - will be present all week and we will be holding two events at the forum.

The supporters of the International Marxist Tendency in Canada have reached an important milestone. In July 2016, we publish the 100th issue of our English-language magazine, Fightback. To honour this occasion we are re-launching our paper with a new more professional design, full-colour printing on every page, and a move from 12 to 16 pages. And all this for the same $2.00 price that we charged for issue 1! This is just the latest of a ...

One year after the passing of their leading comrade Camilo Cahis, Canadian supporters of the International Marxist Tendency gathered for their 16th annual congress. Facing such a blow, it would have been understandable for the group to stagnate or even decline. However, the exact opposite happened. In the face of adversity, the Marxists fighting the Canadian State did not just hold their ground but advanced impressively. The group grew to over 100 activists, increased their impact on a number of campuses, began to develop work in the unions, and have ...

The Quebec solidaire congress held on the weekend of May 28-29th marked the 10 year anniversary for the left-wing party in Quebec. After decades of domination by the Liberals and the Parti Quebecois (PQ), the founding of Quebec solidaire (QS) in 2006 generated a lot of enthusiasm as youth and workers were excited to break the hegemony of the two main bourgeois parties. But what is the balance sheet of these developments and how do we move forward?

The hypocrisy of the rich has never been more glaring since the release of the Panama Papers. While the rest of the world is reeling about the scandal, we cannot forget Canada's own tax haven. Canada is not immune to the scandalous use of tax havens among the rich and famous. At least 350 wealthy Canadians listed in the documents have been implicated in the shadowy practices of tax dodging. This has proven what many Canadians already knew: that there is one set of rules for the rich, and another more punishing set of rules for everyone else.

Fightbackis launching a campaign to hire its fourth full-time organizer. Our aim is to unite revolutionary youth in the struggle for free education, student-worker solidarity, and for a socialist alternative to austerity. This initiative comes after important successes over the past several years, including the hiring of our first full-time organizer in Quebec and the opening of our first office in Toronto.

Federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair suffered an historic defeat as 52% of the 1800 delegates who attended the April 8-10 convention voted for a new leadership. It is the first time any major party leader in Canada failed to win the confidence of the membership in a leadership vote and actually lost a leadership review. As the CBC pointed out, “To put this into context the last time a major federal party leader lost a leadership review was Joe Clark in 1983. Joe Clark got 67 per cent support.” This is a solid defeat for the bureaucracy, visited upon them by a rank-and-file revolt against the failed rightward turn of the party.

As delegates gather for the 2016 Federal NDP Convention in Edmonton, everybody is discussing whether party leader Tom Mulcair will survive a leadership review. As important as this question is, what is far more important is what direction the party as a whole takes in the coming years.

On Saturday, February 27th, members of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party elected a new leader. Standing MLA and favourite Dave Wilson and MLA Lenore Zann were defeated by Gary Burrill. Burrill ran a left-wing, anti-austerity campaign which echoed with party members.

American politics has been fundamentally transformed. For decades, anyone who would have described themselves as a “socialist” would have been viewed as some sort of extra-terrestrial. Today, Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist” draws massive crowds and is posing a threat to Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic Party nomination for upcoming presidential election this fall.