By Hao Di

On September 3 2011, the Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) rescinded the candidacy of Barry Weisleder, who had won the provincial nomination for the riding of Thornhill.

This action generated ripples of controversy amongst left-leaning New Democrats. Weisleder, a party member for over forty years and current chair of the self-styled NDP “Socialist Caucus” has a long and storied reputation as an agitator for state-socialist policies within the NDP, and has often served as a thorn in the side of the party's increasingly centrist leadership.

During a visit to Oslo Noam Chomsky gave a 70 minute video interview with our Anarkismo sister group, Counterpower. Chomsky says the most important task is the creation of Libertarian Socialist organisations and that if we keep the current system we are doomed. Counterpower describe the event as "an evening dedicated to the question of alternatives both beyond capitalism and state socialism, including what the alternative could look like and how we could get there."

The video of the interview is above, the first minute - which is in Norwegian - is bascially Chomsky being introduced to the audience and some practical information about the meeting. The remainder of the interview is conducted in English

By DevinK

The Hamilton Police encountered some uninvited guests at their annual Police Man’s Ball, held September 22 at LIUNA Hall. The Ball, or Chief’s Gala as it was called this year, was a high class, $125-per-plate affair hosted by Chief Glenn De Caire. The party crashers, on the other hand, were roughly 50 loud and angry Hamiltonians responding to a call out issued by 905 Against Police Brutality to form a “People’s Gala” to celebrate resistance to police abuse in our communities.

by Peter Marin

It is late morning in Hamilton and an unusual scene is unfolding in a quiet residential neighbourhood. I am with a group of 25 or so people, and we are gathered outside a house. We are from Steel City Solidarity, a solidarity network run out of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 3906–a union representing teaching assistants and other precarious academic workers at McMaster University. We are here with Dorian, who is owed hundreds of dollars in unpaid wages and unreturned deposits.

By Alex Balch

According to the Toronto Star, I live in the worst neighbourhood in the city.

This past April, in an innocuously titled article “Dundas-Sherbourne poised for a surprising rebirth”, The Star's Robyn Doolittle pointed out that Toronto's downtown eastside “consistently tops every major Toronto police crime indictor list” — routinely beating the more notorious neighbourhoods of Jane and Finch, Rogers and Keele and Weston and Lawrence.

In the article Doolittle rightly — albeit disingenuously — attributes the area's high levels of criminality to its heavy concentration of poverty:

On August 9 2011, Linchpin spoke with Tim Matthews, a member and spokesperson of the anti-austerity group UK Uncut.

Linchpin: For some of our readers in Canada who may not be familiar with your organization, what is UK Uncut? How does your group organize?

Issue 14 of Linchpin, the newspaper of Common Cause, is now online and available for downloading and printing.

This Austerity themed issue features an interview with UK Uncut, articles on the current attack on the right to strike, building Solidarity Networks, a critical assessment of the "Days of Action", and much more!

Download Linchpin now!

or contact us to get paper copies to distribute in your community, activist organization, union, or workplace in Ontario.