The Saskatchewan NDP wants to consult with business before committing to banning replacement workers because of course it does

Unifor leader Jerry Dias arrested on the Co-op picket line

Against the backdrop of one of the most significant labour disputes in Saskatchewan  -- and even arguably Canada as a whole -- in many years the provincial NDP has let it be known that to the great rallying cry "which side are you on" their answer to workers is, for now, no one's.

The ongoing Co-op refinery lockout has seen heightened union militancy due to efforts by the company to break the union by using replacement workers. This has led to union roadblocks, arrests of senior union leaders, threats by the police and courts and a refreshing stance of unity by many national union leaders.

While it is both perfectly obvious that this entire confrontation would have been avoided if the province had anti-scab legislation -- and while such legislation is a basic and fundamental demand of the union movement that you would think would be reflected by Canada's alleged party of labour, the NDP -- the provincial NDP is refusing to commit to such legislation in the unlikely event it were to ever win power.

David Forbes, labour critic for the Saskatchewan NDP "said the NDP will discuss any proposals with “both sides,” presumably meaning employers and labour. He expects the current lockout at the refinery will provide “a lot of lessons learned.”"

With all due respect, Mr. Forbes, those lessons were learned a very long time ago and that comment is bullshit. It is yet another in the endless examples of the NDP seeking to claim it will be a fair and unbiased manager of the capitalist state. Forbes even used the disgraceful and reactionary term "stakeholders" when talking about workers and the bosses as if there is somehow two sides to labour disputes like the Co-op one or something akin to equality in power and influence between unions and corporations.

Ontario anti-poverty activist John Clarke called out the Saskatchewan NDP on Twitter for this and actually got a response from its leader.

If it has been seen to "level the playing field" and "avoid lengthy disruptive labour disputes" then why does it need to be "explored". Why not simply advocate for it as, obviously, it "levels the playing field" in favour of workers and unions.

But that is exactly what the NDP is worried about. Simply advocating for this might make the party appear to be too pro-worker or as on the side of workers and they can't have that.

Corporate and fossil fuel industry quisling Rachel Notley showed this old and tired rule from the NDP playbook when on her very first day in "power" in Alberta she said ""I'm going to be making phone calls today to leaders within the energy industry to begin those conversations. They can count on us to work collaboratively with them."

Of course, industry is totally uninterested in working collaboratively with unions, workers or the NDP, but why not just sell the farm in advance? It is a time-honoured NDP tradition.

As I have noted before "At times it is like the so many New Democrats and their supporters who love to share the 'Mouseland' parable that Tommy Douglas made famous have entirely missed its point. It is not going to be a government by and for the mice if it wants to find "common cause" with the cats.'

When it comes to the struggle between corporations that have not had as much power as they do now for decades and workers who have not had so little, if you say you want to talk to "all stakeholders" and "both sides" you are on the side of the bosses.

Period.

"I am going to remain loyal to my class, the working class, the builders of the future." - Annie Buller, Union Organizer and Communist leader, b. December 9, 1895

Buller addresses the miners in Estevan

"I am not guilty of this charge. I have said before and I say again that it is not Annie Buller who is on trial here. It is the capitalist class which stands in the prisoner's dock. No one realizes more than I do the forces against us are very great. But gentlemen of the jury, regardless of the outcome of the trial. I am going to remain loyal to my class, the working class, the builders of the future." - Annie Buller, Union Organizer and Communist leader, b. December 9, 1895

Union and communist militant Annie Buller was born December 9, 1895 in Ukraine. Her family moved to Montreal when she was a child and there she became active in the anti-war movement during WWI. In 1922 she joined the Worker's Party of Canada which was later renamed the Communist Party of Canada.

Buller was an organizer with several unions including the Toronto Dressmaker's Union as well as with miners in Nova Scotia and in western Canada. 

In September, 1931 Buller was in Estevan, Saskatchewan to help organize a coal miner strike. On September 29 the RCMP opened fire on a crowd of miners who were marching in the town. They murdered three of them and wounded many more. 

Despite the fact that they were victims of police violence it was organizers like Buller who faced charges for "incitement". Buller ended up being jailed for a year. 

Buller continued her organizing and Communist political work after her release and until her death in Toronto in 1973.

To read one of her accounts of the Estevan strike and massacre see: In Memory of the Estevan Massacre, September 29, 1931 w. Song of the Estevan Miners

Janice MacKinnon's new role in Alberta says a lot about the NDP's legacy of "fiscal responsibility". None of it good.

Janice MacKinnon is back. MacKinnon, who was the NDP's Finance Minister in Saskatchewan in the early 1990s, is now heading up a panel for the hard right government of Jason Kenney in Alberta that will provide him with advice on how to get the province out of its supposed “critical fiscal situation”.

This should cause great alarm in Alberta to anyone concerned about what is likely to be severe austerity budgets in the coming years.

MacKinnon, after all, presided over vicious and extreme cutbacks in 1993 in her home province. The Saskatchewan NDP government of Roy Romanow passed a budget that "closed 52 rural hospitals, ended the children’s dental plan and universal prescription drug program, and slashed funding to schools, hospitals, universities and local governments by anywhere from five to 13 per cent." Meanwhile "some business sectors like manufacturing and processing received tax reductions".

This budget was a dream for corporate interests. It emboldened right-wing narratives both in the province and across the country. After all conservatives and liberals could say that even the NDP had accepted that spending was "out of control" and that there was nothing to do but launch attacks on programs and people.

Now Kenney is using MacKinnon's history as a New Democrat to provide him some ideological cover and to allow him to claim that any advice for nasty cutbacks that the panel provides will somehow be "non-partisan".

Of course, as we have looked at before, the Notley Alberta NDP government did itself no favours in buying into neo-liberal narratives around "fiscal responsibility" and its total capitulation to the oil industry and sector and its demands.

But MacKinnon -- who has worked on gigs like this previously for Stephen Harper and the reactionary Pallister government in Manitoba -- takes this to a whole different NDP level.

So the next time that NDP apologists and and partisans point with pride to how the NDP is allegedly the most "fiscally responsible" party when in power -- falsely claiming this is a legacy that flows from Tommy Douglas -- you might want to remind them that it is a legacy that is actually much closer in time to MacKinnon and extreme austerity.

And that is nothing to be proud of.

The Rising Right, Farley Mowat, the CBC, Horwath & more -- October and November on The Left Chapter in review

October and November saw 71 posts of various kinds on The Left Chapter.

Included among these were a look at Liberal cynicism in Trudeau's "progressive" farcical climate change hypocrisy continues, new installments in our look at the USSR in the late 1980s like The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic 1987: Photos, Culture, Economy, History & more -- Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union Series,  Natalie's recipe for a hearty fall classic Beef Barley Soup w. Kale, Parsley & Carrots, an Open Letter Re: The Closing of the Saskatoon Office of the Provincial Archives at the University of Saskatchewan, we posted 11 historic anti-war posters in honour of the 100th anniversary of the end of the great imperialist slaughter WWI including Peace - Poster by Tran Mai, Vietnam, 1985 and art posts such as Yuri Pimenov, People's Artist of the USSR (1903-1977) w. 50 Colour Plates.

Two of our most widely viewed and shared posts are from our ongoing series of posts of vintage leftist leaflets and vintage postcards.

Thanks very much to all our readers and contributors.

If you have an article, editorial, analysis, recipe or story you would like to contribute there are details on how to do so on our Submissions page as well as at the end of this post.

Without any further ado, here are the top six posts, in terms of hits, from October and November.

1) The rising of the hard right in Canada

What a difference four months can make.

Since June we have witnessed what is becoming a seismic shift in the political landscape.

Read more!

2) Farley Mowat Speaks Out on Canada's Role in Vietnam, 1966

Published in 1966 this leaflet flowed out of a conference that was held in Toronto in opposition to the war in Vietnam and looking at Canada's role in it. The conference was organized by several anti-war groups. 

Read more!

3) The CBC notes the victory of fascism in Brazil by how it could benefit Canadian business. Seriously.

The extraordinarily dangerous proven racist, misogynist and outright fascist Jair Bolsonaro has won the Presidency in Brazil.

Read more! 

4) Horwath and fellow ONDP caucus "resistance" fighters to attend event by a real estate lobby group that celebrated the end of rent control

Fresh off of her appearance at an Ontario Chamber of Commerce event mere days after that group had celebrated successfully lobbying the reactionary Ford government to rip up Bill 148, worker's rights and the $15 minimum wage, Andrea Horwath, leader of the opposition and alleged anti-Ford "resistance" is at it again.

Read more! 

(Related: NDP's Horwath appears at Ontario Chamber of Commerce event mere days after the gutting of rights of workers)

5) 20 Panoramic Views of Soviet Ulyanovsk 1969 -- Lenin's Birthplace

Today we are taking a look at a postcard folder with 20 panoramic views of the city of Ulyanovsk on the Volga. These date from 1969 during the Soviet era.

Read more! 

6) Ontario Conservative MPP Ross Romano's grotesque comments against cancer medication coverage

Sometimes no in-depth commentary is necessary to show just how odious and ugly a person's thinking and ideology are. A perfect exposition of the sick mindset of Ontario's new government. 

Read more!

(Related: Ford government disguises ugly attack on minimum wage workers as a tax cut to offset slide in polls)

Our top food related post was: Whole Turkey on the Spit - Vintage Recipe TBT

Do you have a left point-of-view or opinion, event or petition, a recipe or a story you want to share?

Send them to The Left Chapter via theleftchapter@outlook.com!

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Become a Patron!

See also: Christie Pits, Faith Goldy, Doug Ford, Ukraine Arms Sales & more -- August and September on The Left Chapter in review

Open Letter Re: The Closing of the Saskatoon Office of the Provincial Archives at the University of Saskatchewan.

By Charles Smith 

(For information on how to add your name to this open letter see the end of the post)

It has recently been brought to our attention that the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan (PAS) has made the decision to consolidate its holdings and close its office in Saskatoon at the University of Saskatchewan. The Saskatoon office has existed as an important part of the University’s research network since the archive board was created in 1945.

The mandate of the provincial archives is to act as a repository of “both in-person and distance research into family history, government policy and accountability, educational history, past eras, business and social organizations, land settlement, local history, geographic places, cultural developments, human rights, community events and provincial celebrations.”

In performing this vital role, the archives allow both researchers, students, and everyday citizens to inquire into the province’s past, in order to examine the “documentary heritage of the province.” Archivists are expertly tasked with the important work of organizing these invaluable documents and making them accessible to the general public. Given the numerous restrictions that exist around existing catalogued material, the closure of the Saskatoon office will make it even more difficult for researchers to access necessary records.

The closure of the Saskatoon location comes on top of the dramatically scaled back hours that the archive has been offering for the past several years. In fact, the reductions in staffing and now the closure of the Saskatoon branch of the archives will have dire consequences for people attempting to access records, which could mean even longer delays in cataloguing new material while also extending the wait times for researchers to access existing records.

Even if this closure allows the Regina office to expand its collection or to hire new staff, students, faculty, and researchers coming to Saskatoon will run into a never-ending series of issues trying to access essential information. Moreover, with the closure of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company, it will be increasingly difficult for researchers to travel to Regina to access essential records.

We urge the PAS to reconsider this decision. The archives are essential for citizens to access necessary public information. Such a closure will be a loss for students, faculty and the general public at the University of Saskatchewan.

Charles Smith is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of  Saskatchewan  

To add your name to this open letter please email: csmith@stmcollege.ca

Do you have a left point-of-view or opinion, event or petition, a recipe or a story you want to share?

Send them to The Left Chapter via theleftchapter@outlook.com!

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Become a Patron!

Saskatoon NDP debate sees testy exchanges and a strong outing from Angus

And then there were four.

With the withdrawal of Peter Julian from the NDP leadership race the remaining candidates met for the fifth official debate (there was one "unofficial" one held in Toronto) Tuesday night in Saskatoon. While for the most part it was a fairly tepid affair (perhaps due to the reversion to the bizarre format that does not allow applause or audience feedback until the very end) it did have some lively moments notably when both Charlie Angus and Guy Caron sparred with Jagmeet Singh over the 'universality' of Old Age Security.

This was certainly a moment where some very real division emerged as Angus rather combatively and directly questioned what he saw as Singh's abandonment of the NDP's commitment to the principle of universality for social programs like OAS which Singh wants to see made means-tested to focus benefits more towards those who most need them. Singh, whatever one thinks of his position, certainly held his own by telling Angus that he needed to "do his research" as OAS is already means-tested to a degree as it is clawed back on those who make over $70,000 a year. He also said he found it "offensive" that millionaires would receive benefits that poorer and middle-class seniors need so much more. Caron countered that while OAS was not universal it should be and that the principle of universality was an important one that the NDP has fought for and that is party policy.

It was a memorable exchange.

Otherwise there was not much that was new in terms of differentiating the candidates other than rhetorical and policy lines that had been drawn before.

Angus, in fact, had a very strong night overall. He reflected the populist "person of the people" image he has been striving for more effectively than he has to date. He easily had the line of the night early on when he said of Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall's opposition to a national carbon price that he was like "the man violently defending the future of the typewriter when everyone else has moved to cellphones."

He was also very effective when he spoke of the need for a housing strategy that would put billions of dollars to better use than Liberal "rubber duckies" and military interventions, with lines like how he would not "carry the plates for the Liberal dinner" when talking of a potential future NDP-Liberal minority government, and had his most humanizing moment of the debates so far when  he spoke passionately of how he faced excommunication and threats from the pulpit when he stood up for marriage equality rights in spite of his faith and how he would always stand for secular, civil rights principles.

Singh also had a solid outing and not just when he defended against Angus. He presented himself as the "growth" candidate while talking about the need for strong principles to achieve real results on issues like poverty. Even when playing the old pragmatist card about how it really was about getting power he did so eloquently. He also very forcefully spoke to the consequences of systemic racism in policing, something that he noted he alone of the candidates understood first hand.

While Ashton did not have the night she did in Toronto she was was still focused and very well-spoken with no real missteps, though her evoking of Manitoba as an example of principles leading to power may not have been the wisest one given the rather lackluster and ineffective record of the provincial NDP government there achieving anything remotely akin to fundamental change of the kind she has sought to embrace.

She did, however, stay on her message of the need for a shift to the left both within the party and society more broadly, speaking of how she wants to create a politics to believe in, see a "socialist vision in our country" and build an NDP that "does not seek power for its own sake but to change Canada and the world". Ashton was also willing to speak in strong terms about how religious beliefs have, at times, been used to marginalize and oppress people.

Caron had the fewest highlights perhaps in part due to his singular fixation on the policy plank of a basic income that does often leave him sounding one note. In fact, Ashton hit back well on this policy fixation during an exchange in which she noted that basic income is in itself not a policy solution to the problem of precarious work (which it is not). He did have a couple of moments though as when he challenged Angus in French on how Angus would work to recapture the NDP's 2011 strength in Quebec (intentionally or otherwise highlighting Angus' relatively poor French) or when he told the audience "don't let the socks fools you" calling out Trudeau as a "Bay St., big business lackey", a point as well stated as it is true.

The next debate is August 2 in Victoria.

You can watch a recording of the debate on CPAC.

See also: Ashton strong in lively Toronto NDP leadership debate

See also: Fourth NDP leadership debate sees some actual debate bucking the tedious trend

The British and French Elections, The West Wing and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 16 - 23

This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

This list covers the week of April 16 - April 23. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) Far-left veteran Melenchon draws big crowd as French election enters final straight

Johanna Decorse and Emmanuel Jarry, Reuters 

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon drew tens of thousands to a rally on Sunday, aiming to maintain momentum that has pushed the one-time outsider into contention in the French presidential election, with the first round of voting a week away.

Read the full article.

2) HOW LIBERALS FELL IN LOVE WITH THE WEST WING

Luke Savage, Current Affairs

In the history of prestige tv, few dramas have had quite the cultural staying power of Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing.

Set during the two terms of fictional Democratic President and Nobel Laureate in Economics  Josiah “Jed” Bartlet (Martin Sheen) the show depicts the inner workings of a sympathetic liberal administration grappling with the daily exigencies of governing. Every procedure and protocol, every piece of political brokerage—from State of the Union addresses to legislative tugs of war to Supreme Court appointments—is recreated with an aesthetic authenticity enabled by ample production values (a single episode reportedly cost almost $3 million to produce) and rendered with a dramatic flair that stylizes all the bureaucratic banality of modern governance.

Read the full article.

3) Stop swooning over Justin Trudeau. The man is a disaster for the planet

Bill McKibben, The Guardian

Donald Trump is so spectacularly horrible that it’s hard to look away – especially now that he’s discovered bombs. But precisely because everyone’s staring gape-mouthed in his direction, other world leaders are able to get away with almost anything. Don’t believe me? Look one country north, at Justin Trudeau.

Read the full article.

4) Nuclear war has become thinkable again – we need a reminder of what it means

Paul Mason, The Guardian

Last week, Donald Trump deployed his superweapon Moab, the “mother of all bombs” – 10 tonnes of high explosive detonated in mid-air in such a way as to kill, it is claimed, 94 Isis militants. The Russian media immediately reminded us that their own thermobaric bomb – the “father of all bombs” – was four times as powerful: “Kids, meet Daddy,” was how the Kremlin mouthpiece Russia Today put it. But these are child’s play compared with nuclear weapons. The generation waking up to today’s Daily Mail strapline – “World holds its breath” – may need reminding what a nuclear weapon does.

Read the full article.

5) Fightback against austerity is essential

The Treaty 6 Justice Collective, Regina Leader-Post

There are moments in history when local politics have national, and even international, significance. Saskatchewan is currently living one of those moments.

Read the full article.

6) Ottawa police won’t protect abortion clinic despite pleas

Heather Mallick, The Toronto Star

One block away from Parliament Hill, even as Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai won over MPs in the House of Commons on April 12 by crying out for the rights of girls, a cruel and abhorrent scene was playing out on the street.

Read the full article.

7) Jeremy Corbyn says he will break political rules to overturn the ‘rigged system’

Jon Stone, The Independent 

Jeremy Corbyn will promise to overturn “the wealth extractors’ rigged system” of politics and prove his critics wrong by breaking the rules of the "cosy cartel" that runs British politics.

Read the full article. 

8) If you think "sex work is work", how can you be against sex for rent?

Glosswitch, New Statesman

The mainstream left has no right to be shocked about sex for rent. It’s the logical conclusion of a pseudo-feminist politics which refuses to engage fully with power and labour redistribution.

Read the full article.

9) Once-pristine Arctic Ocean contains 300 billion pieces of plastic, study suggests

Ian Johnston, The Independent

Hundreds of billions of pieces of plastic are floating in the once-pristine Arctic, according to a new study, in a startling indication of how polluted the planet has become.

Read the full article.

10) The Handmaid’s Tale Is a Warning to Conservative Women

Sarah Jones, New Republic

Like the Kingdom of God, the Republic of Gilead is both now and not yet. Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale conjures a theocratic dystopia—a version of the United States taken over by fundamentalist Christians after a terrorist attack on Washington. Women are now divided into rigid classes determined by an idiosyncratic interpretation of the Bible. Atwood’s protagonist, Offred, is a Handmaid—a fallen woman who is forced to bear children for righteous couples—and the book follows her sufferings under the Gilead regime. Atwood paints in garish strokes intended to shock: This new society calls homosexuality “gender treachery” and forbids women to read, own property, or choose their own clothing.

Read the full article.

11) Why calls for secularism in education is a facade

Sachin Maharaj and Nadir Shirazi, The Toronto Star

If the true intent is for our schools to be secular, we would move toward one publicly funded system in which all the major religious holidays of our students are recognized and celebrated.

Read the full article.

12) Jean-Luc Mélenchon should be French president. Here’s why

Olivier Tonneau, The Guardian

The leftwing politician is not out to destroy Europe: he is out to save it. La France Insoumise proposes a peaceful revolution towards a fair democratic society.

Read the full article.

13) America is Regressing into a Developing Nation for Most People

 Lynn Parramore, Institute of New Economic Thinking

A new book by economist Peter Temin finds that the U.S. is no longer one country, but dividing into two separate economic and political worlds.

Read the full article.

14) Let’s appreciate what the Fearless Girl represents, rather than tearing her down

Susan Cox, Feminist Current

Is the Fearless Girl statue facing down Wall Street’s Charging Bull a symbol of female empowerment or a corporate cooptation of it?

Read the full article.

15) Activist’s protest against practice of ‘carding’ derails Toronto police board meeting

Wendy Gillis, The Toronto Star

Meeting adjourned after journalist Desmond Cole refuses to leave following deputation. Of data collected on citizens by police, Cole said: “It was never your information to take in the first place.”

Read the full article.

16) Will We Abandon Women’s Rights in the Name of Progressive Politics?

Rebecca Traister, NY Magazine

The most disturbing thing to emerge from this week’s badly bungled Democratic “Unity Tour” staged by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and new DNC head Tom Perez was the fact that the only thing on which the two men seemed to easily agree was that reproductive rights are not necessarily fundamental to progressive politics. This led to uproar and outrage among some precincts of the left, and eventually to mea culpas and “clarifications” from Sanders and Perez. But it is worth closely examining this fight over the importance of reproductive rights in the party because it is an argument that the Democrats seem to rehash over and over and over again.

Read the full article.

17) In The First Week Of Election Campaigning, Corbyn Has Outperformed May Significantly

Kerry Lanigan-Coyle, The Huffington Post

Flying start - two words that sum up the beginning of Labour’s general election campaign. In five days, Jeremy Corbyn has shown he has the passion and the plan in place to transform Britain in the interests of the many.

Read the full article.

18) Sanders-Backing Socialist Wins Big In Georgia City Council Race

Daniel Marans, The Huffington Post

A leading Black Lives Matter activist and self-identified democratic socialist named khalid kamau won a city council seat on Tuesday in South Fulton, Georgia, a newly incorporated municipality outside Atlanta.

Read the full article.

While this article is from before the period covered, it is an important read and has been included as well:

19) Burmese Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi Has Turned Into an Apologist for Genocide Against Muslims

Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept

AUNG SAN SUU KYI IS ONE of the most celebrated human rights icons of our age: Nobel Peace Laureate, winner of the Sakharov Prize, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an Amnesty International-recognized prisoner of conscience for 15 long years.

These days, however, she is also an apologist for genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass rape.

Read the full article.

See also: Mélenchon, US Bombings, Christie Blatchford & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 9 - 16

See also: Syria, Trump, the JDL & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 2 - April 9

Canada 150, Saskatchewan Austerity, the Ottawa Police & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List March 26 - April 2

This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.


This list covers the week of March 26 - April 2. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) Senator Lynn Beyak says she has 'suffered' with residential school survivors

John Paul Tasker, CBC News

Senator Lynn Beyak says she doesn't need any more education about the horrors of the residential school system because she "suffered" alongside Indigenous people who were sent to the institutions.

Read the full article.

2) The All-Male Photo Op Isn’t a Gaffe. It’s a Strategy.

Jill Filipovic, New York Times

During the great Republican health care debacle, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met with the far-right congressional Freedom Caucus to discuss, among other things, stripping out requirements for insurance companies to cover maternity, newborn and pregnancy care. After the meeting, Mr. Pence tweeted a photo of two dozen men sitting around a table. Kellyanne Conway was reportedly in the room, but in the picture the vice president circulated, there was not a woman in sight.

Read the full article.

3) Toronto councillors want to deny Pride funding over police ban

 Michael Smee, Laura Fraser, CBC News

There is a move underway by several city councillors to have Pride Toronto denied city funding because of its decision to exclude the Toronto Police Service from this year's festivities, CBC News has learned.

Read the full article.

4) Droughts, floods from weird jet stream linked to Arctic heat

Scott Sutherland, The Weather Network

Something strange is going on, with more incidences of unprecedented heat waves, droughts and flooding happening in recent years, and based on the latest research, it's looking more and more like climate change is to blame.

Read the full article.

5) Rape fantasy Elle isn’t a five-star masterpiece – it’s sick

Bidisha, The Guardian

Rape apologists: do you like the cinema? Have you always suspected women secretly want to be stalked, brutalised and raped? And that the biggest woman-haters on the planet are not men, but women themselves? Then brace yourselves for a celluloid treat.

Read the full article. 

6) What do many lone attackers have in common? Domestic violence

Hadley Freeman, The Guardian

Desperate attempts to profile Khalid Masood after the Westminster attacks blame Islam, Kent or even drunk teenagers, but the common thread in terrorism is often misogyny

Read the full article. 

7) Toronto’s councillors bury themselves in Scarborough’s subway

Edward Keenan, The Toronto Star

There’s something that probably ought to be cleared up. There’s a perception out there — it arose during Tuesday’s city council meeting debating (again) the extension to the Bloor subway line to the Scarborough Town Centre — that proponents of the competing LRT proposal have somehow delayed the construction of the subway for years.

Read the full article. 

8) Building the “Saskatchewan Advantage”: Saskatchewan’s 2017 Austerity Budget

Charles W. Smith and Andrew Stevens, Socialist Project Bullet 

Saskatchewan's 2017 budget landed with an unenthusiastic thud last week. Riddled with cuts, job losses, public sector wage reductions, and tax increases, the Saskatchewan Party's austerity budget has garnered few friends, with critics ranging from organized labour movement to small businesses.[1] The government's budget has several fiscal goals: aggressively tackle its $1.3-billion deficit in three short years, overhaul the tax structure away from progressive forms of taxation to consumption taxes, and dismantle key aspects of the social welfare state.

Read the full article.

9) 'I feel duped': Why bank employees with impressive but misleading titles could cost you big time

Erica Johnson, CBC News

Mike Black says he feels "completely betrayed" after trusting RBC Dominion Securities employees with impressive-sounding titles to manage his life savings, only to earn far below the market average for six years.

Read the full article.

10) ‘Expect no apology’ for comments about ‘gay lifestyle,’ Brad Trost’s campaign says

Marie-Danielle Smith, The Star Phoenix

Conservative Party leadership candidate Brad Trost’s campaign is not backing down after controversial comments Tuesday about his discomfort with the idea of people being gay.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Brad’s not entirely comfortable with the whole gay thing. And if you haven’t noticed, you have not been paying attention,” campaign spokesman Mike Patton said in a “campaign update” video put out on social media Tuesday.

Read the full article.

11) Ontario Tory says 'zero tolerance' for doctors who sexually abuse patients is 'intolerant'

Press Progress

A Tory MPP says he's concerned a "zero tolerance policy" towards Ontario doctors found sexually abusing patients would not be in keeping with Canada's identity as a "tolerant society."

Read the full article.

12) Complainant in Kamloops sex assault case devastated by judge's comments, Crown stay of charges

Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun

A woman who accused her stepfather of sexually assaulting her decades ago plans to file a complaint with the Canadian Judicial Council this week over controversial comments made by the B.C. Supreme Court judge presiding over her case.

Read the full article.

13) She’s Hot: Female Sessional Instructors, Gender Bias, and Student Evaluations

 Andrea Eidinger, Active History

“I think your feminist stances are slightly overcorrecting reality. I’m sure minorities had a harsher experience than women, ESPECIALLY today, a point you seem to overlook. You’re a really nice person though.”

That comment comes from my student evaluations from one of the first courses I ever taught, back when I was still a graduate student. At the time that I read that, I burst out laughing. I mean really, how else can you react to that kind of statement? But many courses and student evaluations later, I am starting to think that this is reflective of a larger problem in the world of academia, and history in particular, with respect to female sessional instructors and course evaluations.

Read the full article. 

14) The pro-choice memoir we all need right now

Denise Balkissoon, The Globe and Mail

A pregnant teenager learns that the fetus she is carrying will be born without a functioning circulatory system. At no point will it be able to breathe for itself – there is no way that it can live. The teenager decides not to terminate the pregnancy, telling her obstetrician that she is “praying for a miracle.”

Read the full article. 

15) Policing the police in Sask.: Time to consider independent civilian agency, says justice official

Dan Zakreski, CBC News

In February, Ryan Donard ran into the Fond du Lac River in Stony Rapids after RCMP responded to a complaint at a house in the northern Saskatchewan community, according to a news release.

Read the full article. 

16) Lynn Beyak tells residential school survivors she wants audit of all First Nations spending

John Paul Tasker, CBC News

After hearing testimony about the atrocities committed in residential schools, Senator Lynn Beyak asked survivors at the Senate's Aboriginal peoples committee Wednesday what they thought about her plan for a national audit on all First Nations spending.

Read the full article. 

17) Canada 150 is a celebration of Indigenous genocide

Pamela Palmater, NOW Magazine

This year, the federal government plans to spend half a billion dollars on events marking Canada's 150th anniversary, prompting a great deal of debate about its historical treatment of Indigenous peoples. The majority of Canadians don't have all the facts about that, while First Nations continue to live the crisis-level effects of that legacy. Perhaps Canada should cancel its celebrations and undertake the hard work necessary to make amends.

Read the full article. 

18) Pro-Abdi wristbands a response to 'slap in the face' police campaign

 Amanda Pfeffer, CBC News

A retired Ottawa firefighter is launching his own line of wristbands in solidarity with the family of Abdirahman Abdi as a counter to a police campaign in support of the officer charged with manslaughter in Abdi's death.

Read the full article. 

19) Chrystia Freeland Can Rest Easy Now

Sheldon Kirshner

Congratulations, Chrystia Freeland.

You’ve won.

You and your handlers not only buried a legitimate news story, but convinced a compliant media, a cowed Jewish leadership and a spineless Jewish press to ignore it, as if it never even existed.


Read the full article.

20) A Message From the End of the World

Ariel Dorfman, The New York Times

Here in Chile, in the far south of the Southern Hemisphere, it has been the summer of our discontent. Never have so many natural catastrophes in a row hit this country at the end of the world. For once, it is not the earthquakes that have assailed us since time immemorial or the tsunamis that often follow, devastating land and coast, mountainscapes and ocean. This time, our unprecedented woes have all been man-made.

Read the full article.

21) Egypt’s Coming Revolt of the Poor

Zeinab Abul-Magd, Foreign Policy

Earlier this month, bread riots erupted in Egypt. Thousands of angry demonstrators blocked roads and crowded around state-affiliated bakeries, protesting a government decision to reduce the number of loaves of subsidized bread each family could purchase. As security forces clashed with rioters in poor localities in Alexandria, Kafr El Sheikh, Minya, and Asyut, protesters chanted, “We want to eat!” Social media activists have dubbed the movement “the supply riots” (intifadat al-tamwin).

Read the full article.

22) Why should we trust the Ottawa Police Service?

Tyler Dawson, Ottawa Citizen

What’s especially alarming about Ottawa police officers wearing solidarity bracelets isn’t so much that the wristbands exist, it’s that the officers involved clearly didn’t much care about whether or not there’d be blowback and how it would damage policing in this town.

Read the full article.

23) Video offering $1K reward for recordings of Muslim students praying ignites fears

Shanifa Nasser, CBC News

Staff with the Peel District School Board in southern Ontario are being cautioned to be "extra vigilant" about a video making the rounds online offering a $1,000 reward for recordings of Muslim students in any school in the region "spewing hate speech during Friday prayers."

Read the full article.

24) The ‘feminists should be nice to men’ trope is back. So is The Handmaid’s Tale

Van Badham, The Guardian

Creeping back into commentary is the notion that male power will be kinder to women if they flatter it. If history can’t demolish this notion, maybe fiction can.

Read the full article.

24) Inside the Dangerous Convergence of Men’s-Rights Activists and the Extreme Alt-Right

 David Futrelle, NY Magazine

James Jackson had a plan. Traveling by Bolt Bus from his home in Baltimore to New York City, the 28-year-old Jackson hoped to strike a blow for the beleaguered white race by carrying out a bloody massacre of black men in Times Square, using a two-foot sword he’d brought with him for the occasion.

Read the full article.

25) Mike Pence doesn't eat alone with women. That speaks volumes

Jessica Valenti, The Guardian

The vice-president’s rule is insulting for men and limiting for women. But let’s not let Pence’s sexism distract us from his whole party’s sexist agenda.

Read the full article.

26) Sergeant who Tasered dying Sammy Yatim faces misconduct charge

Wendy Gillis, The Toronto Star

Nearly four years after Sammy Yatim was shot eight times on an empty streetcar, Ontario’s police watchdog has ordered that a misconduct charge be laid against the veteran Toronto police sergeant who Tasered the 18-year-old as he lay dying, the Star has learned.

Read the full article.

27) It's better to be rich and mediocre than poor and bright in the UK, admits Education Secretary

Will Worley, The Independent

Lower-achieving pupils from rich families earn more than talented poorer children, the Education Secretary has admitted.

Read the full article.

See also: Climate Change, Police Malfeasance, Lenin & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List March 19 - 26

See also: The NDP Leadership Race, the Dutch GreenLeft, Gavin McInnes & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List March 12-19

The Women's Marches, the Inauguration, Saskatchewan Austerity & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List January 15-22

San Francisco March via Maris Lawson, Twitter

This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

There are many related to the incredible and historic display of women's resistance in the wake of the inauguration of the racist, homophobic and bigoted Donald Trump as American President.

This list covers the week of January 15 - 22. It is in order of date of the article's release.

1) Climate change: 90% of rural Australians say their lives are already affected

Calla Wahlquist, The Guardian 

Ninety per cent of people living in rural and regional Australia believe they are already experiencing the impacts of climate change and 46% believe coal-fired power stations should be phased out, according to a new study.

Read the full article. 

2) RCMP employees' sex-harassment suit against force certified as class action

Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press

A proposed agreement to compensate women who endured sexual harassment as employees of the RCMP has passed a key hurdle, with a Federal Court judge agreeing two lawsuits against the police force can proceed as a class action.

Read the full article. 

3) MLK Day: Meet 9 lesser known women behind the civil rights era's biggest achievements

Alison Durkee, Mic

Jan. 16 marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day honoring the legacy and achievements of one of the foremost leaders from the civil rights movement. 

But while male leaders like King and Malcolm X are renowned for their contributions to the influential movement, the role women played in the civil rights struggle goes largely unnoticed. Americans may know the names of Rosa Parks or Coretta Scott King, but the numerous other women who played key roles in the fight for equal rights are too often wiped from the history books.

Read the full article.

4) Reflections on Barack Obama: A Great and Disappointing President

Salim Muwakkil, In These Times

Eight years ago, many African Americans—including me—entered a state of near-delirium when a first-term U.S. senator from Illinois was elected the first black president of the United States. I watched that election unfold just blocks from the new president’s house, in Chicago’s upscale Kenwood neighborhood, in a home full of politically hardened black baby boomers. Tears were visible in most eyes. Few of us had believed we’d live long enough to see a black POTUS. Barack Hussein Obama’s victory seemed to vindicate the heroic struggles of so many unnamed ancestors. 

Read the full article.

5) Support striking beer workers – boycott Molson Coors

Warren Thomas, OPSEU

Nobody wants a strike. But when your employer asks you to accept a deal that would turn your good, middle-class job into a bad job, then you have no choice. You’re going on strike.

Read the full statement.

6) What Israeli Soldiers Never Tell Their Mothers

Gideon Levy, Haaretz

They gathered in the narrow street, on a cold and dark night. They were tense. The howl of a distant jackal broke the silence. For some, this was their first operational mission. They’d always dreamed of it, and they’d been in training for a long time. The adrenaline was flowing, just the way they liked it. That’s what they enlisted for.

Read the full article.

7) Why the government can't cut its way to growth

Simon Enoch, Saskatoon Star Phoenix

It is now abundantly clear that the Saskatchewan government’s “transformational change” agenda is in reality a not-so-subtle euphemism for fiscal austerity in response to the current economic downturn. Recently announced spending cuts in health ($63.9 million), education ($8.7 million) and social services ($9.2 million), coupled with comments from the premier suggesting significant public sector layoffs and wage cuts make it clear that the government’s plan for the economy is to “cut its way to growth.”

Read the full article.

8) Food Stamp Fables

Joe Soss, Jacobin

The New York Times’ front-page attack on food stamps over the weekend peddled harmful myths and outright lies.

Read the full article.

Toronto March via Don Breithaupt, Facebook

9) World's eight richest people have same wealth as poorest 50%

Larry Elliott, The Guardian

The world’s eight richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globe’s population, according to a charity warning of an ever-increasing and dangerous concentration of wealth.

Read the full article.

10) Sask. Party wage freeze a declaration of war on unions

Murray Mandryk, Regina Leader-Post

The government made it official Friday — at least, to those who control public sector salaries. Saskatchewan is freezing the wages of all civil servants.

Read the full article.

11) Alienating Labour’s grassroots will keep Corbyn out of power

Michael Chessum, The Guardian

I don’t even like cupcakes that much – and I despise the practice, which is sadly becoming more widespread, of playing out the left’s internal squabbles on the pages of newspapers. But the picture painted by leaked emails from Momentum’s steering committee last week, in which I urged my colleagues to “eat cupcakes and think about butterflies” in a frustrated plea to them to step back from the brink of a split, is worthy of elaboration. The coup currently under way in Momentum tells us something bigger about the need for the left to rethink its strategy.

Read the full article. 

12) Mocking, Marching, Stopping the Hate and Dumping Trump Are Not Enough

Bruce A. Dixon, Black Agenda Report

Mocking, protesting and ridiculing Big Cheeto before and after inauguration will be big fun. But storms of ridicule did not drive Ronald Reagan or Dubya from office. Mockery that only undermines the legitimacy of evil persons rather than the capitalist system makes us nothing more than the warm up for Corey Booker or whoever Democrats nominate next. Left messages, memes and hashtags need to eviscerate Trump but also to educate people.

Read the full article.

13) Infinite Jest: Liberals Laughing All the Way to Hell

Chris Floyd, Counterpunch

Saturday Night Live had a really funny ha-ha joke the other night. Making fun of Trump’s whiny tweet asking “Are we living in Nazi Germany?” the funny ha-ha SNL news guy said brightly: “Of course not! At least Nazi Germany had the guts to take on Russia!”

Read the full article. 

14) Pride Toronto members vote to keep police out of the Pride parade

Eternity Martis, Daily Xtra

Pride Toronto’s members have voted overwhelmingly in favour of keeping police out of this year’s and future parades, and to endorse all of Black Lives Matter Toronto’s demands.

Read the full article.

15) The problem with the English: England doesn’t want to be just another member of a team

Nicholas Boyle, The New European

There is a great lie peddled about the referendum: that it expressed the will of the British people. The pattern of voting showed up a colossal divergence between England, with its Welsh appendage, on the one hand, and Scotland and Northern Ireland on the other.

Read the full article.

16) European Jews Alarmed by Israeli Outreach to Anti-Semitic Far Right

Don Snyder, Forward

Jews in Europe are voicing increasing consternation about Israel’s budding engagement with surging far-right European parties that have anti-Semitic histories.

Read the full article.

17) Donald Trump to be sued by woman who accused him of sexual assault

Rachel Revesz, The Independent

Denver March via Vox

A woman has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, accusing him of sexual assault.

The woman’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, told the press her client filed a lawsuit on Tuesday.

At least a dozen women previously accused the President-elect of sexual assault and he strongly denied all the claims. Only one person filed a lawsuit against him but dropped the case shortly after she failed to reveal her identity at a press conference.

Read the full article.

18) The Holocaust for Communists

J. Hoberman, Tablet

Sterne [Stars], an East German-Bulgarian co-production that won a major prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and thereafter fell into obscurity, is itself the story of a memory on the brink of oblivion—a movie in which, for a few hours, time stands still before swallowing its protagonists.

Read the full article.

19) The west was built on racism. It's time we faced that – video

Kehinde Andrews, Leah Green and Bruno Rinvolucri - The Guardian

Dead white men are revered by many as responsible for the advancement of civilisation, says sociology professor Kehinde Andrews. But, he argues, this so-called progress came at the expense of millions of people of colour. Global inequality is not an accident, he argues – it is designed to keep the hierarchy of race intact.

Watch the video.

20) Map shows where President Barack Obama dropped his 20,000 bombs

Harriet Agerholm, The Independent

Incoming US President Donald Trump has said he will wage war on Isis, vowing to "bomb the s*** out of 'em".

And as the world gears up for a seemingly more violent four years, it is worth reflecting on President Obama's tenure

Read the full article. 

21) Earth Sets a Temperature Record for the Third Straight Year

Justin Gillis, The New York Times

Marking another milestone for a changing planet, scientists reported on Wednesday that the Earth reached its highest temperature on record in 2016, trouncing a record set only a year earlier, which beat one set in 2014. It is the first time in the modern era of global warming data that temperatures have blown past the previous record three years in a row.

Read the full article.

22) City wrong to choose roads over community housing

Desmond Cole, The Toronto Star

For Mayor John Tory money was no object for an ill conceived subway expansion and repairing the Gardiner expressway, even if we had to borrow it. But on housing the mayor is crying poor.

Read the full article.

23) Toronto is getting its own version of the High Line

Derick Flack, Blog TO

A proposal for a new park system connecting various green spaces along a hydro corridor on the west side of Toronto has taken a major step forward at the outset of 2017. The idea for the Green Line, which takes inspiration from New York's High Line, dates back to 2012, but now there's finally a budget and design team in place to realize the vision.

Read the full article. 

24) Without a path from protest to power, the Women's March will end up like Occupy

Micah White, The Guardian

Shortly after Donald Trump’s shock election victory, I received an urgent call from one of the co-creators of the Women’s March on Washington. She was concerned at a moment you might expect her to be ecstatic. Hundreds of thousands of women in 17 countries had already signed on in solidarity, and the numbers kept growing. Yet despite the tremendous momentum, she confessed a nagging skepticism about the effectiveness of the protest.

Read the full article.

25) B.C. aboriginal leader Arthur Manuel fought tirelessly for rights

Jody Paterson, The Globe and Mail

Arthur Manuel was born into indigenous activism. Working with the seeds his father, George, first sowed in the 1970s in the early days of Canada’s indigenous rights movement, the tireless B.C. aboriginal leader was on the front lines of the international fight for aboriginal title and self-determination right up until he drew his last breath.

Read the full article.

 

26) Sanders backers take over California Democratic Party

Reid Wilson, The Hill

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) turned out en masse at ordinarily sleepy party caucuses earlier this month, electing a slate of delegates who could be poised to take over the largest Democratic Party organization outside of Washington, D.C.

Read the full article.

27) Campaigners push Liberals for $15 minimum wage in Ontario

Mike Crawley, CBC News

Labour groups are optimistic Premier Kathleen Wynne and her provincial Liberals will follow Alberta's lead and commit to raising Ontario's minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Read the full article.

28) Canadians appear to be more hateful online. Here's what you can do about it

CBC News

The internet can be a pretty intolerant place, and it may be getting worse.

An analysis of Canada's online behaviour commissioned by CBC's Marketplace suggests a 600 per cent jump in the past year in how often Canadians use language online that's racist, Islamophobic, sexist or otherwise intolerant. 

Read the full article.

29) Police in Bristol taser their own race relations officer in the face

David Harding, Yahoo News UK

Police officers in Bristol tasered their own force’s black Race Relations Advisor in the face – after mistaking him for a wanted man.

Read the full article.

30) It has no chance': Socialist party heading for implosion in French elections

Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian

Gérard Singer, a retired clerk in the French social security system, was queuing up for a Socialist party rally on the edge of Paris in the freezing cold, and the mood was grim. “The Socialist party is in the shit,” he sighed.

Read the full article.

31) Françoise David, voice 'for the disenfranchised,' leaves politics

Benjamin Shingler, CBC News

Françoise David, a longtime activist and one of the founders of Québec Solidaire, is leaving political life. 

Read the full article.

32) By every meaningful measure, today's elites are gods. This should make us angry

Jeff Sparrow, The Guardian

In a recent article, the novelist and academic China Miéville warns progressives against adopting the cynical savviness so characteristic of mainstream punditry.

“Becoming a radical critic of capitalism,” Miéville writes, “involves a process of disenchantment, the dying of surprise at the system’s depredations; but being one, a long-term witness to those depredations, is to repeatedly discover that we can be shocked by what no longer surprises us.”

Read the full article.

33) After ethics review, Senate postpones committee vote for Betsy DeVos

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, The Washington Post

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has postponed the vote on Trump’s education pick Betsy DeVos, hours after receiving the completed ethics review for the Michigan billionaire.

Read the full article.

34) WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF EMERGENCY

Dan Froomkin, The Intercept

For those of us who believe in core progressive American values – multiculturalism, civil liberty and civil rights, free speech, a free press, truth in government, economic fairness, environmental protection, inclusiveness, equal justice, a humane society, the list goes on – today marks the first day of a disaster on a scale that until a few months ago was beyond our imagination.

Read the full article.

35) Today is one of the dumbest days in American history

Shaun King, The New York Daily News

We are here. It is real. It is sad. It is ugly. I hoped we could somehow avoid it, but the moment is upon us. Today is one of the dumbest days in American history.

Read the full article.

36) The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s inauguration: a declaration of political war

The Guardian Editorial Board

In its outward details, the orderly transfer of American presidential power accomplished in the inauguration-day scene on Capitol Hill today felt time-honoured. The ceremonial essentials of the occasion – the stars and stripes banners, the dignitaries and the prescribed rituals of the swearings-in – were familiar and traditional. Political rivals took their places on the podium as they do every four years, shook hands and applauded one another, offering gracious compliments and providing a show of national dignity.

Yet all this was in fact a sham. Donald Trump’s inaugural address was a declaration of war on everything represented by these choreographed civilities. President Trump – it’s time to begin to get used to those jarringly ill-fitting words – did not conjure a deathless phrase for the day. His words will not lodge in the brain in any of the various uplifting ways that the likes of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy or Reagan once achieved. But the new president’s message could not have been clearer. He came to shatter the veneer of unity and continuity represented by the peaceful handover. And he may have succeeded. In 1933, Roosevelt challenged the world to overcome fear. In 2017, Mr Trump told the world to be very afraid.

Read the full article.

37) The official White House website has dropped any mention of climate change

Darrell Etherington, Tech Crunch

Trump’s administration is acting quickly to dangerously reimagine reality. It has deleted all specific mentions of “climate change” and “global warming,” as well as removed an entire page dedicated to the subject at the http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/climate-change URL, which is no longer an active link.

Read the full article.

Sacramento March via Shirin Rajaee Twitter

38) The White House’s LGBT rights page has disappeared

Sarah Buhr, Tech Crunch

And so the transition of power begins. First up is the WhiteHouse.gov site where several pages are now changing or altogether disappearing — including a page on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

Read the full article.

39) Turnout For Women's March Exceeds Attendance At Trump's Inauguration

John Wright, NCRM

Turnout for Saturday's anti-Trump Women's March on Washington has already exceeded attendance at the inauguration on Friday, according to multiple reports. 

Read the full article.

40) Women’s March Is The Biggest Protest In US History As An Estimated 2.9 Million March

Jason Easley, Politics USA

Millions of Americans have taken to the streets from New York to Los Angeles and everywhere in between as the Women's Marches on Washington is estimated to be the biggest one-day protest in US history.

Read the full article.

41) THOUSANDS FLOOD STREETS, ATTEND WOMEN'S MARCH LOS ANGELES

Jade Hernandez and Amy Powell, ABC News

The streets were flooded with crowds of people attending the Women's March in downtown Los Angeles Saturday.

Read the full article.

42) Chicago women’s march cancelled, but rally will continue

Max Greenwood, The Hill

The marching portion of the Women’s March on Chicago was cancelled on Saturday after the crowd ballooned to 150,000, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Initial estimates placed the event’s expected attendance at about 22,000. That number was eventually raised to 50,000. But that estimate ultimately fell short too, prompting organizers to cancel the actual march because the planned route had become too congested.

"Our march route is flooded. There is no safe way to march. We are just going to sing and dance and make our voices heard here," organizer Ann Scholhamer told a portion of the crowd.

While the march itself was cancelled, the rally portion of the event is scheduled to go on, according to the Tribune report.

“We called and you came. We have flooded the march route. We have flooded Chicago," organizer Liz Radford told the crowd.

Read the full article. 

43) Moments from the March: Ottawa women cheer from hair salon, 94-year-old says 'get on with it'

Hillary Johnstone, CBC News

Thousands of people marched through downtown Ottawa on Saturday in solidarity with the Women's March on Washington — to raise awareness for women's rights and human rights — as U.S. President Donald Trump marks his first full day in office.

Read the full article.

44) Aerial photos show large crowds at Women’s Marches across the country

Timothy B. Lee, Vox

Women from across the country have converged on Washington, DC, on Saturday for a massive rally to protest Donald Trump’s election and promote women’s rights. At the same time, there have been rallies organized in major — and not so major — cities across the country.

Read the full article.

45) Women’s March on Washington Beats Expectations: Half a Million Descend on Mall

Daniel Politi, Slate

Protests around the world via Nick Bilton, Twitter

Organizers and city officials were expecting around 200,000 protesters in Washington on Saturday for the Women’s March on Washington. But the turnout surpassed all expectations as the demonstration grew into a more than a half-million–strong force that could turn out to be larger than the crowds that gathered for Donald Trump’s inauguration. The result of this much larger-than-expected crowd was evident to anyone who tried to join using any form of public transportation as trains and subways overflowed with people trying to make it into downtown Washington.

Read the full article.

46) Women's march: Women hate Donald Trump so much they are even marching against him in Antarctica

Adam Lusher, The Independent

Donald Trump is so unpopular that there are even women marching against him in Antarctica.

The day after the inauguration of a president who bragged about grabbing women by their genitals, thousands will be marching in Washington and in more than 60 countries around the world, to “stand up for human rights, women’s rights and against hate.”

Read the full article. 

47) Uplifting, Heartbreaking, Enormous Crowds at Women's Marches Around The World

Mother Jones

Dramatically larger than expected crowds showed up Saturday at women's marches in Washington, DC, and more than 600 cities around the world. Mother Jones reporters have been on the scene all day, interviewing protesters and gathering photos and video. In this roundup we've collected some of what they saw, as well as highlights from across social media. 

Read the full article.

See also: Obama's Lies, Male Violence, Meryl Streep & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List January 8-15

See also: Twitter, Basic Income, Kaepernick, Disney & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List January 1 - 8