Spring

Universal Basic Income: Should the left support it?
2020-10-04 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Toronto)
Should the Left support a demand for a Universal Basic Income (UBI)? This simple question has provoked a fervent and confusing debate. In the midst of a global pandemic and a massive economic crisis, discussion over UBI touches on real political and economic anxieties.

Over the last 40 years the attack on the social welfare state, the depreciating power of organized labour and an economy producing increasingly low-wage precarious jobs have led many to search for alternative mechanisms and policies to address these problems.

Could Universal Basic Income be that alternative policy? This Spring online meeting will explore this question.

Speakers:
Loretta Fisher, writer, poet and activist, member of Spring and the Workers’ Action Centre
Mina Rajabi, an education researcher and policy analyst
John Clarke, longtime anti-poverty activist with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
David Bush, contributor to Spring Magazine

Find the event on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/406748450313592/

Zoom link:

When: Oct 4, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Universal Basic Income: Should the left support it?Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88001376352?pwd=[REDACTED]
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Or iPhone one-tap :
Canada: +15873281099,,88001376352#,,,,,,0#,,180664# or +16473744685,,88001376352#,,,,,,0#,,180664#
Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
Canada: +1 587 328 1099 or +1 647 374 4685 or +1 647 558 0588 or +1 778 907 2071 or +1 204 272 7920 or +1 438 809 7799
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Webinar ID: 880 0137 6352
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International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kMTm2Xmj5

Online reading group: We need socialist organization
2020-09-11 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto)
The capitalist system breeds a cruel world of racism, sexism, exploitation and climate chaos. These problems lead many to question the system and start thinking about alternatives. But, as Antonio Gramsci said, “ideas can’t live without organization.” The corporations, the capitalist state, the right wing are all organized. They are constantly learning and honing their methods. Our side needs organization too. To go from understanding the system to challenging it we need socialist organization. Join this discussion of the why, what, how and when of socialist organizing.
Email info@springmag.ca for zoom link
RSVP via Facebook
Suggested Readings:
-Why you should join a socialist organization: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/05/join-socialist-organization-dsa-working-class
-Why socialists need organization: https://solidarity-us.org/whyorganization/
-Towards a revolutionary socialist party: https://www.marxists.org/archive/hallas/works/1971/xx/party.htm
-The period, the party and the next left: http://socialistworker.org/2019/03/22/the-period-the-party-and-the-next-left
-The Dig Podcast, “Organize to Win”: https://www.thedigradio.com/podcast/organize-to-win-with-andres-celin-and-rapheal-randall/

Online Reading Group: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism - PT. 3
2020-09-01 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto)
Join us for an online reading group of this very substantial read. We are reading this book in sections. This is our second meeting to discuss this book. But all are welcome, even if you missed our last discussion.
-We will be reading up to the end of Part 2 (Chapters 7 – 11).
-Email info@springmag.ca for zoom link
–RSVP via Facebook
The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called “surveillance capitalism,” and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior.
In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth.
Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new “behavioral futures markets,” where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new “means of behavioral modification.”
The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a “Big Other” operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff’s comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled “hive” of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit–at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future.
With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future–if we let it.

West Coast Reading Group: Marxism & Oppression
2020-08-19 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Vancouver)
One of the reasons we fight for revolutionary change is to put an end to oppression. It is important to truly acknowledge, not just the objective truths of the violence capitalism forces on us, but the ways in which this violence is measured, spread, and reproduced. Marxists are often accused of ‘class reductionism,’ that is, that all forms of oppression faced by the masses of marginalized peoples is a product of the class struggle.

While it is true that those most oppressed by the ruling class are often members of historically and systemically marginalized groups, we do not all face oppression under capitalism the same way. Today, we are more multiracial, more openly LGBTQ2SA+, more disabled, and more upset than ever.

Join Spring for an online discussion on this topic and how we can best unite and fight in our time for a better world.

Resources:

Russia 1917: gender, class and the Bolsheviks (https://marxistleftreview.org/articles/russia-1917-gender-class-and-the-bolsheviks/)
Revolution in the 21st Century; chps 10-12 (https://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/2007/revolution/index.html)
Marxism, Exploitation, and Oppression (https://wearemany.org/a/2018/07/marxism-exploitation-and-oppression)

To RSVP via Facebook click here
Email info@springmag.ca for zoom link

Solidarity trip to 1492 Land Back Lane
2020-08-12 09:00 - 15:30 (America/Toronto)
Show your support for Indigenous Sovereignty! Join the Toronto solidarity trip to 1492 Landback Lane!

Land Defenders from the Haudenosaunee Six Nations are occupying their traditional territory at the McKenzie Meadows construction site in south Caledonia which is slated for development into townhomes. Just last week, the OPP arrested 9 people and fired a rubber bullet while enforcing an injunction from Haldimand County mayor Ken Hewitt.

Let’s bring our solidarity and material aid to show these Six Nations Land Defenders that we support their fight.

We will be leaving Toronto together and driving down together. Sign up to get details, send supplies, drive down a group or to find a ride at: info@springmag.ca
Donations can be sent to landback6nations@gmail.com

Online reading group: Socialist journalism
2020-08-07 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
As Malcolm X warned, “if you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” How can socialists challenge the ideas of the corporate media? How can we amplify the demands of social movements, remember lessons of past struggles, and build our own networks of resistance? Join us for a discussion of socialist writing, filming, posting and media of all kinds.
Suggested Readings:

Writing while socialist: http://bostonreview.net/global-justice/vijay-prashad-mark-nowak-writing-while-socialist
Unfortunately, we can’t log off: https://jacobinmag.com/2018/12/log-off-social-media-twitter-organizing-facebook
The revolutionary press: https://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/1984/xx/revpress.html
What is to be done: The website as organizer: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/27025 or video from the author, Revolution 2.0? Social media and social movements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E74Ear0seaE

Email Spring at info@springmag.ca for a zoom link
To RSVP via Facebook Click Here

Socialism in the Park
2020-08-06 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Gage Park, 1000 Main St E, Hamilton, Ontario, L8M 1N2
Join the Hamilton Spring Socialists for a meet-up on August 6th at 6:30 pm, where we will be talking about who we are and what we do. If you’re a socialist and want to be organized, let’s talk! See you there!
RSVP via Facebook

Online Reading Group: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism - PT. 2
2020-07-25 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Toronto)
Join us for an online reading group of this very substantial read. We are reading this book in sections. This is our second meeting to discuss this book. But all are welcome, even if you missed our last discussion.

-We will be reading up to the end of Part 1 (Chapters 1 – 6)
–For Zoom link email: info@springmag.ca
The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called “surveillance capitalism,” and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior.

In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth. Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new “behavioral futures markets,” where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new “means of behavioral modification.”

The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a “Big Other” operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff’s comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled “hive” of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit–at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future. With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future–if we let it.

Online Reading Group: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff
2020-07-11 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Toronto)
The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called “surveillance capitalism,” and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior.

In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth.

Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new “behavioral futures markets,” where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new “means of behavioral modification.”

The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a “Big Other” operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff’s comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled “hive” of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit–at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future. With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future–if we let it.

Join us for an online reading group of this very substantial read. We are proposing to read it in chunks, with the first meet up being on July 11 and the goal for us to discuss the first two chapters entitled:

1. Home or Exile in the Digital Future
2. August 9, 2011: Setting the Stage for Surveillance Capitalism

For a copy of the book email: info@springmag.ca
For a Zoom link: info@springmag.ca

West Coast Reading Group: Who do the Police Serve and Protect?
2020-07-03 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Vancouver)
The movement against police brutality and racism are continuing to grow in the US, Canada, and the world. There is an ever increasing push on government on all levels to defund and abolish policing. What would this mean for our communities? What is the role of policing today? Do the police serve and protect all citizens, or a select few?

Join the next Spring reading group to take part in this important discussion. This is building off our last discussion of Marxism, oppression, and racism with a specific focus on looking at the role that police and violence play in the state, the movement to defund and abolish, as well as the role of organized socialists and revolutionaries.

Recommended Resources and Readings:
The Socialist Case Against the Police: Abolish the Police – https://rampantmag.com/2020/03/31/abolish-the-police/
Revolution in the 21st Century, Chps. 7-9 – https://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/2007/revolution/index.html

Email Spring at info@springmag.ca for a zoom link
To RSVP via Facebook Click Here

Online reading group: Abolish the police
2020-06-26 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
The murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers has unleashed a wave of anger. Protests across the country and beyond (thousands marched for #justiceforRegis in Toronto) have turned into an uprising against police violence and anti-Black racism. The movement is pressing cities and institutions across the country to punish killer cops and defund police departments. Join us for a discussion of the racist history and politics of the police, the dynamics of the movement right now, the limits to police reform, and how we can get rid of the police altogether.

Suggested Readings:

Defunding the police will save Black and Indigenous lives in Canada: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/defund-police-canada-black-indigenous-lives_ca_5ed65eb2c5b6ccd7c56bdf7d
“The Limits of Police Reform” excerpt from book The End of Policing: free e-book available here https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing
Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/opinion/george-floyd-minneapolis.html
The origins of the police. audio: https://wearemany.org/a/2012/06/origins-of-police or print: http://socialistworker.org/blog/critical-reading/2014/12/09/main-role-police-protecting-ca

Email Spring at info@springmag.ca for a zoom link
To RSVP via Facebook Click Here

West Coast Reading Group: Racism, Oppression, and Revolution
2020-06-12 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Vancouver)
As dozens of American cities rise in rebellion against murderous and racist police forces, calls for defunding or even abolishing the police are becoming louder. What does Marxism say about the role of the police under capitalism, and what would society look like with no police? Is this an attainable goal? What are the prospects for revolutionary change in our time?

Join the next Spring reading group to take part in this important discussion. This will be a continuation or our last reading group session on socialism from below and revolution in the 21st century, with an added focus on the current uprising against police violence in North America, and the chances of radical change from a system of oppression and violence to one based on meeting people’s real needs.

The recommended readings and resources are:

Revolution in the 21st Century – Chris Harman (Chps. 5 – 6; https://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/2007/revolution/index.html)
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation – Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Chp. 1; https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ATfLUhbRhQ4VDzXs0lSZ9iKYnk9nZfR9?usp=sharing)
Podcast – Abolish the Police: Liberal vs Revolutionary Perspectives.; (https://wearemany.org/a/2019/07/abolish-police)
Angela Davis – Freedom is a Constant Struggle (YouTube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u1aHpEtWyA)

Email Spring at info@springmag.ca for a zoom link
To RSVP via Facebook Click Here

Online Reading Group: Basic Income and Socialist Strategy
2020-06-05 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Should the Left support a demand for a Universal Basic Income (UBI)? This simple question has provoked a fervent and confusing debate. In the midst of a global pandemic and a massive economic crisis discussion over UBI touches on real political and economic anxieties. Over the last 40 years the attack on the social welfare state, the depreciating power of organized labour and an economy producing increasingly low-wage precarious jobs have led many to search for alternative mechanisms and policies to address these problems. The collapse of the labour market and the economy has only added fuel to this debate. Universal Basic Income with its promise of streamlined access to minimal economic security has attracted many adherents on the Left.

But the very same forces that make it difficult to win improvements in current social programs, would not be magically abolished by the implementation of UBI. In many ways UBI presents more favourable conditions for employers and the government to attack existing social programs and make it harder for workers to win things like higher wages.
So should the left support a Universal Basic Income? This Spring Reading Group will explore this question.

Readings:
-Universal Basic Income: reasons to be cheerful or no go central? by Ellen Clifford and Mark Dunk
http://isj.org.uk/universal-basic-income/
-The Basic Income Illusion by Alex Gourevitch and Lucas Stanczyk
https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no4/the-basic-income-illusion
-The Basic Income Debate by David Calnitsky
https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no3/debating-basic-income

To RSVP vis Facebook click here.
Email info@springmag.ca to get the zoom link

Covid 19: Who will pay for the crisis?
2020-05-30 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Toronto)
As the global crisis unfolds, the capitalist class is scrambling to restart the economy and resume the business of profit-making. And as the economy is opened up, the temporary measures designed to support workers are coming under increasing attack from big business and their representatives in government. Workers everywhere face an uncertain future.
What are the challenges and opportunities facing the workers’ movement, here and around the world? How can we organize to ensure that bosses pay for the crisis, not workers? What do we need to do right now to prepare workers for the challenges ahead?
On Saturday, May 30 at 2:00 pm EDT, join Spring Magazine for this important roundtable discussion featuring:
Radhika Desai: Professor, Dept of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Director of Geopolitical Economy Research Group
Janice Folk-Dawson: Executive Vice-President, Ontario Federation of Labour
Deena Ladd: Executive director and organizer, Workers’ Action Centre
Mina Rajabi Paak: Education researcher and policy analyst, decent work organizer and member of Spring Socialist Network
To RSVP via Facebook click here.
Email info@springmag.ca to get the zoom link

Vancouver Reading Group: Revolution in the 21st Century
2020-05-29 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Vancouver)
Many around the world have seen the 21st century as a time of struggle, change, and revolution. People all over are fighting back against austerity agendas, climate catastrophe, and all forms of oppression. The question, then, is how do rebuild society in a way that is truly democratic and equitable?

Join Spring for a discussion covering this change and ask questions like ‘Who will be at the table for this change?’ and ‘How will we get there?’ There is a long history of capitalism being challenged since its inception, as well as living and proposed alternatives. Let’s gather together to discuss and plan for revolution in the 21st century.

Suggested readings and podcasts:
-Chris Harman – Revolution in the 21st Century (Chps: intro – 6)
-Socialism 101: Socialism From Below podcast

To RSVP vis Facebook click here.
Email info@springmag.ca to get the zoom link

Online reading group: Rosa Luxemburg's Reform or Revolution
2020-05-15 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto)
Born in Poland in 1871, Rosa Luxemburg became a rabble rousing activist. Eventually, she ended up in Germany as one of the leading revolutionaries in the German Social Democratic Party, and founder of The Spartacus League. Though was only 47 years old, when she was murdered during the German Revolution, her contribution to Marxist political thought was immense.

Since her teen-age years, she had been dedicated to building a mass movement of the working-class majority that would fight for improvements in the here-and-now (reforms); while at the same time fighting to replace the tyranny and exploitation at the heart of capitalism with the expansive political and economic democracy of socialism (revolution). As she put it in her pamphlet Reform or Revolution, for a successful socialist movement, “the struggle for reforms is its means; the social revolution, its aim.” In a time of capitalist crisis join Spring’s online reading group in revisiting Luxemburg’s classic pamphlet, “Reform or Revolution” to see what relevance it has for today.

Readings:

Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg: https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/index.htm

More readings to follow

To RSVP via Facebook Click Here
Email info@springmag.ca for the webinar link

COVID, Crime & Capitalism - Webinar
2020-05-09 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto)
COVID-19 has opened up basic questions on how society organizes food, shelter, work and health, It has also shown all the ways migrants, BIPOC, poor and working class people are criminalized by laws, from immigration laws and work restrictions, to social distancing laws and stigmatization, etc and how these pre-existing problems have been intensified by the COVID crisis.

Speakers
-Sarom Rho is an organizer at the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, leading the Migrant Students United project, and organizes with Foodsters United on the Justice for Foodora Couriers unionization drive.
-Krisna Saravanamuttu is a community organizer and journalist. He studies law at Osgoode Hall in Toronto.
-Jessica Evans is a limited term Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Ryerson University and a member of the Toronto Prisoner’s Rights Project. Her research examines the role of penal nationalism in the political economy of (ongoing) settler colonial state formation, primarily in Canada. Her most recent article, Crisis, Capital Accumulation and the ‘Crimmigration’ Fix in the Aftermath of the Global Slump is forthcoming in the journal Citizenship Studies.
-Mariam Nazik is left-wing activist in the Ottawa area interested in issues facing BIPOC and the environment.

Email Spring at info@springmag.ca for the Zoom link
To RSVP via Facebook Click Here

Vancouver Reading Group: What do we do after Bernie?
2020-05-08 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Vancouver)
Expectations for Bernie Sanders were sky high only a few weeks ago. These expectations were dashed as the Democratic Party establishment lined up behind Joe Biden, sweeping Super Tuesday and effectively ending the Sanders run for president. Sanders ran a campaign that championed working class demands like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal and posed the question of socialism to millions. What now? What lessons can socialists learn from Bernie’s historic run? What do we do next? Join us for a discussion on these questions and more.

Here are some suggested articles and audio:
-Bern after Reading: Sanders and Socialist Strategy – https://newpol.org/bern-after-reading-sanders-and-socialist-strategy/
-Facing Reality: The Socialist Left, The Sanders Campaign and our Future – https://newpol.org/facing-reality-the-socialist-left-the-sanders-campaign-and-our-future/
-Podcast: Vivek Chibber on the state: https://blubrry.com/thecallradio/38387253/episode-12-vivek-chibber-on-the-state/

To RSVP via Facebook Click Here
Email info@springmag.ca for the webinar link

How do we build tenant power during a pandemic?
2020-04-26 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto)
The economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions to lose their jobs or see their hours of work reduced. Workers are struggling to make ends meet and the emergency income relief put forward by the government is not enough.
Millions are faced with prospect of being unable to pay their rent or having to direct almost all of their income support to their landlords. Join Spring Magazine for a discussion with tenant organizers about how to build tenant power in the midst of a pandemic.
Speakers:
-Nat Lowe is a labour and community organizer and is a member of Chinatown Tenants Organization in Vancouver, BC
-Lisa Descary is active in the Vancouver Tenants Union and the Spring Socialist Network.
-Paterson is a queer artist, musician, and community organizer. She is an organizer at her building in Parkdale.

Webinar: email info@springmag.ca for zoom link
Click here to RSVP via Facebook

Reading group: Capitalism, the State & Socialist Strategy
2020-04-24 19:00 (America/Toronto)
Join us for an online discussion on capitalism, the state and socialist strategy.

What is the capitalist state? How does it function? And what does this mean for socialists in their fight for a more humane system?
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, whole industries are begging for public money, governments are telling businesses what to make, and central banks fire up the money-printing machines, announcing there is no limit to what they’re willing to spend. This isn’t the capitalism we’re used to! Join us for some readings that will help us understand the role of the state under capitalism and what that means for socialist strategy and tactics.

Webinar: email info@springmag.ca for zoom link

Suggested reading and listening:
-Podcast: Vivek Chibber on the state https://blubrry.com/thecallradio/38387253/episode-12-vivek-chibber-on-the-state/
-The capitalist state and socialist strategy: https://rampantmag.com/2020/04/02/the-capitalist-state-and-socialist-strategy/
-The state and revolution: http://socialistreview.org.uk/427/state-and-revolution
-The Coronavirus and the crisis: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/04/coronavirus-crisis-covid-socialist-left-future-strategy

Click here to RSVP via Facebook

The Healthcare Crisis: Why workers' rights are key to confronting the pandemic
2020-04-19 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto)
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues many are asking how do we flatten the curve and fight the virus? Instead of empowering people to self-isolate at home and to reduce transmission in the workplace, and instead of following successful strategies from other countries like expanding testing and hospital capacity, governments are blaming ordinary people for spreading the virus and empowering the police to impose restrictions–which suppresses people but not the virus.

This webinar will look at the reality faced by healthcare workers, what resources they need to treat patients and protect themselves and why workers’ rights, from access to PPE and paid sick days to expanded EI, are key in fighting this public health crisis.
Join us for a discussion with healthcare workers and advocates about what is needed to tackle this public health crisis.

Speakers:
-Dr. Iman Ahmed will speak on the global challenges facing health care workers.
-Amrita Parmar is a nurse who has worked in Burnaby, British Columbia in geriatric care for the past five years.
-Simran Dhunna is an MPH Epidemiology candidate at the University of Toronto and an organizer with Climate Justice Toronto and Peel.
-Faiz Ahmed is a long time trade unionist and socialist.
-Zaid Noorsumar is a journalist who has contributed to CBC, The Canadian Press and Rankandfile.ca. Most recently, he has been providing in-depth coverage of working conditions in the long-term care sector.
-Jesse McLaren is an emergency physician and member of the Decent Work and Health Network.
–Autumn Easterbrook is a frontline support worker for adults with intellectual disabilities.

When: Sunday April 19, 1pm EDT
Where: Zoom, Webinar – Email info@springmag.ca for link

RSVP via Facebook by clicking here.

Online reading group: The economy, the pandemic and the state
2020-04-10 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto)
Join us for an on-line reading group on the economy, the pandemic and state responses. We are facing an unprecedented economic crisis in the midst of a worldwide public health catastrophe. Already 929,000 people filed for EI last week and this number is likely to rise. There will be much talk about shared sacrifice, about how governments need to bailout businesses and so forth. We will be discussing the roots of the crisis, how states are responding and the ways in which we can push for socialist alternatives.

Here are a couple articles and a podcast to help our discussion:
1) Canada and the crisis of capitalism: https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/canada-and-the-crisis-of-capitalism
2) Coronavirus, the market and the state: https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/21001-coronavirus-the-market-and-the-state
3) The Dig Podcast: Coronavirus Economics: https://www.thedigradio.com/podcast/coronavirus-economics-with-grace-blakeley/

RSVP via Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/332203141069893

The reading club will take place via zoom: Link to be posted soon.

Webinar: COVID 19 & capitalism: Rights not repression
2020-04-05 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto)
Already, there has been unprecedented state intervention to stablize the economic system as the impact of COVID-19 continues to unfold.
Many progressively-minded people – and parties – are championing state measures that subsidize corporations and landlords without safeguarding the well-being of workers and renters.

How do we respond to the “solutions” and “demands” that are emerging in a way that builds the confidence and combativity of the working class?
Join us for this webinar to talk about the ways in which the state has responded to COVID-19 and about the economics that underpin this particular moment.

Speakers:

Samuel Nithiananthan is an organizer with Peoples Defence, a leader in Toronto’s Tamil community, and an activist in the student and labour movements.
Alex Hunsberger is a trade unionist and decent work activist based in Toronto. He is also a member of the Spring Socialist Network.
Saman Tabasinejad is a member of the Executive Committee of the Iranian-Canadian Congress and an anti-war and anti-sanctions activist based in Toronto.
Ella Bedard is an activist with the Fight for $15 and Fairness and a member of the Spring Socialist Network.

RSVP via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/242063980306369

Please email info@springmag.ca for the webinar link.

Toronto book club: Indigenous sovereignty, ecosocialism & social change
2020-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Workers’ Action Centre, Suite 202, 720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 202, Toronto, Ontario, M5S2T9, Canada
Join us to discuss some articles. All welcome, read what you can but it will be worth it whether you can read all of it or none of it.
Suggested articles:
Marx and the Indigenous: https://monthlyreview.org/2020/02/01/marx-and-the-indigenous/
The Ecosocialist views of Karl Marx: https://climateandcapitalism.com/2019/06/16/ecosocialist-views-of-karl-marx-kohei-saito/
Bonus: Podcast Audio and Transcript: Our history is the future with Nick Estes: https://www.thedigradio.com/podcast/our-history-is-the-future-with-nick-estes/
RSVP via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/910047419450832

COVID-19: A Socialist Response
2020-03-22 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto)
As COVID-19 spreads rapidly around the world, outpacing our capacity for testing, let alone treatment, it highlights the weakness of the capitalist system in the face of a biological crisis. The global pandemic shows governments’ around the world are prioritizing the interests of corporations and the stock market, while leaving working class people to deal with the public health risks of precarious work and inequality. Fortunately, there are already movements fighting for a healthier economy and there are actions we can take to fight for a more just, sustainable and healthier world.

Join our virtual meeting with:
Pam Frache from the Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign
Jesse McLaren from the Decent Work and Health Network

To RSVP via Facebook click here

Link to webinar: https://zoom.us/j/484485878

Chile: Is Revolution Possible?
2020-03-04 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Workers’ Action Centre, Suite 202, 720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 202, Toronto, Ontario, M5S2T9, Canada
What started off as a protest against a transit fare hike last October soon exploded into a mass movement demanding nothing short of a reckoning with Chile’s neoliberal elite.
Join the Spring Socialists for this discussion about where the movement came from, its prospects for radical transformation, and its implications for struggles everywhere.
Introduction by Alex Kerner. Alex is the son of Chilean exiles, a long time trade unionist, and a member of Spring.

Branch planning meeting: Toronto
2020-02-05 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Workers’ Action Centre, Suite 202, 720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 202, Toronto, Ontario, M5S2T9, Canada
Join us for a branch planning meeting in Toronto.
Agenda:

Climate justice activity
Decent work activity

Discussion: What would it take to stop a war on Iran?
2020-01-29 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Workers’ Action Centre, Suite 223, 720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 223, Toronto, Ontario, M5S2T9, Canada
How do we build a vibrant anti-war movement? What can we learn from the movement against the Iraq War? Can we make the links to the fight for climate justice and decent work? Join this conversation about what we can do to oppose war and imperialism.
Speakers:

Saman Tabasinejad: Iranian-Canadian Congress
James Clark: Toronto Coalition to Stop the War

A discussion will follow short introductions by the speakers. Join on Facebook.

Reading group: The Two Souls of Socialism
2020-01-24 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Workers’ Action Centre, Suite 223, 720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 223, Toronto, Ontario, M5S2T9, Canada
Join us for a discussion of Hal Draper’s classic pamphlet, “The Two Souls of Socialism.”
The purpose of this discussion is to review the various manifestations of “socialism”–from social democracy, to Stalinism, to revolutionary socialism from below.
Speaker:
Faiz Ahmed: Spring Magazine
Recommended reading:
“The Two Souls of Socialism” by Hal Draper
“The rank-and-file strategy: Building a socialist movement in the US” by Kim Moody

Spring into the holidays!
2019-12-13 19:00 - 22:00 (America/Toronto) | The Rhino, 1249 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M6K1L5, Canada
Image includes the text, “Friday the 13th: Spring into the holidays!” with flower and star decorations dangling on leafy vines below the words (Credit: Pam Frache)
Join the Spring socialists at the Rhino this Friday the 13th to celebrate a year of revolutionary organizing, activism — and Sagittarii! We’ve already made reservations, but RSVP in advance so we can make sure we have enough seats for everyone!
Please RSVP at info@springmag.ca or on Facebook.
