2019 saw over 470 posts of various kinds on The Left Chapter. These ranged from analysis to opinion pieces to left history to art and recipe posts.
Consistently popular were our vintage postcard and photography posts such as On Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands - A Photographic Trip to the Soviet Far East, 1973 and Sofia, Bulgaria 1973 -- 19 Vintage Postcards and Images. We continued with our Republics of the Soviet Union series in posts like The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic 1987: Photos, Culture, Economy, History & more.
Meanwhile the Vintage Leftist Leaflet project is ongoing with posts like The World Communist Movement: Yesterday and Today, 1983 and "An Act of Solidarity in Angola" - Speech by Fidel Castro, 1975. Readers can look forward to many more of these in 2020.
We debuted our new feature the Daily LIFT (Leftist Image for Today) with posts like Eugene V. Debs Portrait, 1919 -- Daily LIFT #7 while having extensive coverage of the attempted coup in Venezuela, the coup in Bolivia, international news and events with our weekly round-ups and issues such as the Parkdale NDP nomination debacle as well the Kafkaesque fiasco that unfolded with other NDP nominations in the lead up to the election.
The disgraceful capitulation of the Liberal government to imperialist narratives were looked at in the posts Which of these countries is not like the other? -- A Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland Imperialism Quiz! and Canadian hypocrisy and double standards in South and Central America on full display and others, some of which made this list.
I want to thank all of our readers and contributors very much for their feedback, support, criticisms and engagement.
The year had many posts that came very, very close to making this list. We also had contributions from writers that were widely read and shared, including three that made this top of the year list.
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed this year and I look forward to seeing what interesting viewpoints and arguments we see next year.
(Remember that if you have a left point-of-view or opinion, a recipe or a story you want to share or if you want to share a petition/appeal or upcoming event you can send them to The Left Chapter via theleftchapter@outlook.com!)
Readers can look forward to new features in 2020. Remember also to watch for our list of the top food and recipe posts of 2019 early in the new year.
While normally we have the top ten posts, this year after we had already started our countdown a new post Canada has a racism problem and the fact so many Canadians think we don't is a part of it, did so well that it made this list at #4 so we have expanded the list to eleven so that nothing gets bumped off.
Here, without further ado, are the top eleven posts (in terms of hits) on The Left Chapter in 2019:
#1) The "fare evasion" narrative on the TTC is a total fraud. Here's why.
Every year the same line is trotted out by the TTC and various civic politicians in Toronto with the damage done monetarily always increasing from 20 to 40 to now allegedly over $60 million a year. Fare evasion, they say, is a serious problem and then they tsk-tsk about the "cheaters" and the need for more enforcement and get to shift the narrative of blame about the TTC's woes from themselves and decades of mismanagement, incompetence and underfunding to those mean and nasty freeloaders, i.e. TTC riders themselves.
(See also: The policing of fare evasion reveals the twisted agenda of our politicians)
#2) Of course Ford has not revealed plans for the TTC "Ontario Line". It will never be built.
Of course -- with many detours, delays and fake routes still to come -- in the end likely nothing gets built which will be blamed by Doug Ford and his stooges on the federal government, Toronto City Council, aliens or whatever.
It doesn't really matter who they say was at fault, nothing getting built was almost certainly the plan all along.
(See also: Higher TTC fares, more fake cops and a cancelled LRT -- Ontario's politicians ring in the holiday with a boot to the face for transit users)
#3) Green Party RA President steps down citing "racism", demands Green leadership apologize to Jagmeet Singh
By Ammario Reza
The president of the Saint John East provincial Green Party riding association has stepped down from his position late Sunday night. In a Facebook post Kevin (Kage) O’Donnell blasted the Greens for being what he described as “a party that allows people who promote...racism”
#4) Canada has a racism problem and the fact so many Canadians think we don't is a part of it
Perhaps after an election where Justin Trudeau was exposed for having worn blackface on several occasions and yet not only was not forced to resign as Liberal leader but was ultimately reelected as Prime Minster (albeit with a minority) it should not come as a surprise that "49 per cent of Canadians don't think racism is a serious problem in the country".
(See also: For Horgan "peaceful resolution" apparently flows from the barrel of a gun)
#5) Where Does the NDP Stand on Venezuela?
Entirely predictably it would appear the NDP is going over to the imperialist camp.
(See also: In Venezuela as in Chile, what is past is prologue)
#6) The election results in Toronto tell a story the NDP does not want to hear
The NDP's Toronto federal election results really put the lie to a number of the narratives their partisans and organizers are trying to spin.
(See also: No, the NDP losing over 600,000 votes and 20 seats is not a "victory")
#7) Canada extends Ukraine military mission against alarming backdrop of rising fascism and neo-Nazism
Greatly overshadowed by other news out of Ottawa the Trudeau government today announced its decision to extend the Canadian military mission to Ukraine until at least 2022. Chrystia Freeland -- who notoriously celebrated her Ukrainian grandfather's nationalist past despite the fact that he was a Nazi collaborator -- stated that the mission "allows us to meet Ukraine's needs and to offer new forms of support as Ukraine needs them."
(See also: Canada and Freeland's rhetoric about a "rules-based international order" is bullshit and the US just proved it again)
#8) The NDP's election disaster shows again the need for something new on the left
Apparently the masses didn't get the memo.
Despite all the assurances and social media posts of NDP partisans, and despite the surprising number of left activists who decided to jump onto a bandwagon to nowhere, Jagmeet Singh and the NDP not only did not surge they ended up with their worst result in 15 years wiping away all the gains of the Layton years that were supposed to deliver them to the Promised Land of power.
(See also: Fifty years later it is time to acknowledge the Waffle was wrong)
#9) “The End of History” and the Post-Soviet Tragedy
By Nathaniel Laxer
When almost any discussion of the USSR occurs today it is clouded by the western framing of the Cold War. Generally it is only the flaws of the Soviet Union or the Stalin Era that are looked at. Due to this it is often taken for granted that the collapse should be seen as a great and positive defining moment of the modern world and a victory over tyranny.
(See also by Nathaniel Laxer: A Holiday Nightmare)
#10) Sid Ryan's nomination run in Oshawa yet another federal NDP debacle
It would appear that Sid Ryan is the latest casualty of a long standing, right wing NDP trend.
(See also: The cat is out of the bag with the Sid Ryan and NDP vetting fiasco and Janet-Lynne Durnford's NDP nomination story a Kafkaesque travesty)
#11) What happened at the Parkdale NDP's nomination meeting?
by Myles Hoenig
Alabama of the 50s and 60s has migrated to Toronto. The ghost of South Africa has a consulate here. Israel’s apartheid government must be jealous over how well Toronto’s NDP runs its elections. So what the hell happened?
(See also: Canada’s NDP Looks Like the US’s GOP: Voter Disenfranchisement in the Parkdale-High Park Riding and The optics of the Parkdale NDP's federal nomination meeting are not good)
Have a happy and safe New Year! See you all in 2020.
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