In the context of the process of passing legislation related to the Westray mining disaster (ultimately diluted to satisfy the interests of employers), a union representative explicitly expressed the reality that workers face when they work for employers. The problem with this explicit admission of the power of employers is that it does not play … Continue reading Confessions of a Union Representative Concerning the Real Power of Employers
Author: The abolitionist
I come from a working-class background. My lost paid job was a teacher, substituting for a number of years before obtaining a permanent position. I obtained my doctorate in 2009. I am an unapologetic critic of capitalism and the way in which various institutions and ideologies reinforce it.
Unions and Safety on Jobs Controlled by Employers
The following tries to explain why unions do not adequately address the safety concerns of rank-and-file workers who work for an employer. Of course, safety conditions in non-unionized settings may be even worse, but we should not idealize unionized settings either. They are better than non-unionized settings, generally, but they remain inadequate since workers' safety … Continue reading Unions and Safety on Jobs Controlled by Employers
What’s Left, Toronto? Part One
I wrote the following around six years ago. It is still pertinent today. Indeed, we read the following from a recent "Marxist" last year: When there once existed a mass international socialist movement, polemics were hard-edged because the movement was everywhere bidding for power. But the polemical texts were typically substantial, factual, and challenging and … Continue reading What’s Left, Toronto? Part One
Social-Reformist Leftist Activists Share Assumptions with the Right
In an earlier post (Basic Income: A Critique of the Social-Reformist Left’s Assumptions and Analysis: Part Two), I argued that the social-reformist leftist activist Mr. Bush used Karl Marx's theory of surplus value for conservative (reformist purposes). This post will expand on this view by pointing out, in a more theoretical way, how Mr. Bush, … Continue reading Social-Reformist Leftist Activists Share Assumptions with the Right
Management Rights, Part Four: Private Sector Collective Agreement, Ontario, or: How the Social-Democratic Left Ignore Them
Management Rights The social-democratic left typically is incapable of dealing with the issue of the power of management. There is little or no discussion over such issues despite the existence of the power of the class of employers at various levels of society: economic, political, social and cultural. This silence expresses both the power of … Continue reading Management Rights, Part Four: Private Sector Collective Agreement, Ontario, or: How the Social-Democratic Left Ignore Them
Getting Away with Murder and Bodily Assault: Employers and the Law
Steven Bittle, in his doctoral dissertation, Still Dying for a Living: Shaping Corporate Criminal Liability After the Westray Mine Disaster (Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University argues the following (from page ii): Overall, the dissertation suggests that the assumptions that animated Canada’s corporate criminal liability legislation and the meanings inscribed in its provisions throw serious doubt on … Continue reading Getting Away with Murder and Bodily Assault: Employers and the Law
A Case of Silent Indoctrination, Part Two: The Ontario History Curriculum and Its Lack of History of Employers and Employees
This post is a continuation of a previous post on the Manitoba history curriculum (see A Case of Silent Indoctrination, Part One: The Manitoba History Curricula and Its Lack of History of Employers and Employees). The background to the post is provided in that previous post. But just a reminder: the research question is: … Continue reading A Case of Silent Indoctrination, Part Two: The Ontario History Curriculum and Its Lack of History of Employers and Employees
Socialism, What It May Look Like, or Visions of a Better Kind of Society Without Employers, Part Two
Leer este post en español The following is a continuation of an earlier post (Socialism, Part One: What It May Look Like) about the nature of socialism--which is a solution to problems that capitalism, characterized by the domination of a class of employers, cannot solve. Socialism is not something that emerges from a utopian view … Continue reading Socialism, What It May Look Like, or Visions of a Better Kind of Society Without Employers, Part Two
The Educational Needs of the Labour Movement: A Radical Imagination
The radical left in Toronto (and probably elsewhere) has failed to engage in the radical imagination. When I participated as a facilitator in a few educational workshops for some workers and worker representatives at the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA), two other leftists and I created a program that included three sections on capitalism. The … Continue reading The Educational Needs of the Labour Movement: A Radical Imagination
Basic Income: A Critique of the Social-Reformist Left’s Assumptions and Analysis: Part Two
This is a continuation of my last post. In this post, I will address Mr. Bush's confused analysis of relations at work and in exchange in a situation dominated by a class of employers, which he confusedly analyzes in his April 26, 2017 article published on the Socialist Project website (Basic Income and the Left: … Continue reading Basic Income: A Critique of the Social-Reformist Left’s Assumptions and Analysis: Part Two
The Abolitionary 