Indian youth movement blazes a trail with COVID-19 mitigation initiatives rooted in solidarity

By Muhammed Shabeer

This article was originally published at peoplesdispatch.org on May 25, 2020. We thank Muhammed Shabeer for allowing us to reprint it.

Millions of people across the globe are in distress due to the COVD-19 pandemic and lockdowns imposed to contain its spread. Progressive sections, including youth and farmers and workers’ organization have been in the forefront of providing relief and assistance to the people. In places where strong socialist governments are pursuing pro-people policies to tackle the COVID-19 emergency, progressive youth and volunteers are powerfully facilitating social solidarity. Youth from the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Young Communist League-Cuba and Communist Youth League of China have played such a role in countries like Vietnam, Cuba, China.

Grocery Workers Talk Poverty Wages and Pandemic Profits

By Michelle Paquette and Doug Yearwood, YCL-LJC members in Ottawa

This article was originally published in Rank and File

After large private sector grocery retailers introduced pay increases for frontline workers, Herb & Spice—a locally owned and operated grocery store in Ottawa— announced that its employees would receive a $1.50/hour hazard pay increase. Unlike other grocery stores who have committed to maintaining the pay increase until the pandemic subsides, this employer is only delivering hazard pay for a single pay period.

May Day 2020: The Youth will not pay for Capitalism’s Crisis

YCL-LJC Central Executive Committee, May 1, 2020

This statement was originally published on the Young Communist League of Canada - La Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada homepage

On the occasion of May 1st 2020, International Workers Day, the Young Communist League of Canada salutes healthcare workers who are on the frontline in the struggle against the COVID-19 Pandemic. We also wish to express our solidarity with those who must continue to work despite the risks of the Pandemic. To all these workers, we reiterate our demand that they be provided at no cost all personal protective equipment and that their health is guaranteed on their workplace. Would that not be the case, their right to refuse to work has to be enforced. We also the more than 10 million people who have lost their job or seen their work hours slashed.

Rent In the Era of COVID-19: An Interview with Victoria Tenant Action Group

By Florian Castle

On the 25th of March, John Horgan’s NDP government outlined their plan for dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic. The government’s plan was swiftly condemned by Lekwungen territory-based tenant advocacy organization Victoria Tenant Action Group, or VTAG. VTAG’s statement described some of the issues with Horgan’s proposal, most notably the complete insufficiency of their rent subsidy of $500 per month which would cover only a third of the average monthly rent in Greater Victoria.

COVID-19: More than ever, it's time to fight for free education

Manuel Rato

For many students, COVID-19 is synonymous with anxiety: anxiety about the accommodation they will probably no longer be able to afford at the end of the month, anxiety about their food and summer jobs so essential for making ends meet and paying higher and higher tuition fees.

NATO: A Virus as Deadly as COVID-19

By Adrien Welsh

The death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 40,000 and the number of people infected by this pandemic is approaching one million. Given the scale of this health crisis, there is no doubt that emergency measures, in particular to help the most vulnerable, are necessary.

However, the billions of dollars mobilized to respond to COVID-19 mean very little in the face of the colossal sums that the Western imperialist states are constantly pouring out not to fight, but to incubate another virus just as deadly, if not more, than COVID-19: NATO.

Toronto tenants organize “Keep Your Rent” campaign during pandemic

By Ivan Byard

This article was originally published in the April 1-15, 2020 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper

Workers, especially low-income tenants, are being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite social distancing, they’re organizing to put their rights and needs ahead of landlords’ profits. Parkdale Organize, a membership-based group of working class people who organize to build neighbourhood power in Toronto’s Parkdale area, has called for tenants to “Keep Your Rent on April 1.” The campaign comes on the heels of the Ontario Superior Court March 19 decision to place a hold on the enforcement of residential evictions, and the subsequent decision of the Toronto the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) to suspend hearings.

For a People’s Recovery, NOT A Corporate Plunder!

YCL-LJC Central Executive Committee, March 2020

This statement was originally published on the Young Communist League of Canada - La Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada homepage


We salute the immense efforts of healthcare workers to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and provide their essential services in a state of emergency. For over 30 years public sector unions and community organisations have struggled against privatisation, job loss, and closures in the healthcare sector. Our public healthcare system was overwhelmed before the outbreak of the global pandemic. Decades of cuts and austerity will leave working people, Indigenous peoples, the unemployed, the elderly, and the poor severely exposed unless emergency action is taken. 

Don't Demonize China! A Report from Chongqing

by Peter Miller, Correspondent in China

Peter Miller also gave an interview for the show "Loud and Clear". You can listen to it here. 

I’m in China during the pandemic and it’s pained me to see anti-Chinese propaganda gaining ground in the West, including Canada.

Instead of blaming China for a virus that knows no borders, we should be looking to China for lessons on how Canada should respond to the COVID-19 crisis. During the height of the crisis in China, both in Chongqing where I live and all over China, residents followed rules on how often they could go out. For me, I could only leave my apartment complex once every two days to go shopping for groceries. This was labelled as "authoritarian" by writers in the Western press, but instead of being authoritarian, it was clearly a measure needed to quell the spread of the virus.