Thousands protest Why we at airports against need paid Trump’s travel ban sick days PAGE 3 PAGE 2 $2 | No 589 | February 2017 socialist.ca Stop Trump’s murderous racism Humanity against Trump Millions worldwide reject Trump’s sexism and bigotry Pages 3-5 Neoliberal BUILD THE ‘solutions’? Eric Lescarbeau on why the carbon tax won’t work Page 2 Anti-racist rally RESISTANCE Community rallies against Nazis in New Westminster Page 7 Anger derails Trudeau tour John Bell on the coast-to-coast protests confronting the PM Page 8 Black Lives Matter win Maureen Aslin on #BLMTO’s Toronto Pride victory Page 8 Protestors at Los Angeles International Airport: solidarity has the power to win. Photo: Wilson Pumpernickel he election of Trump is unleashing by politicians in Canada and amplified by the Thousands joined spontaneous offensive, resurrecting the two pipelines that both barbarity and unprecedented corporate media. But again, the response has demonstrations at airports in the US when the will accelerate the drive to climate crisis. resistance. It has not taken long been huge. Within hours of the horrific attacks, Muslim travel ban was imposed, as lawyers Shamefully, both the Trudeau and Notley Tfor him to wreak havoc and to at- dozens of rallies and vigils were organized donated their time to help detained travelers governments support Trump’s plan. tack everyone from Muslims to women to across Canada and Quebec. enter the country. Taxi drivers in New York Within the week, Idle No More activists LGBTQ people to Indigenous land defend- Trump’s overt misogyny in the election struck in opposition to the ban, and people from mobilized and calls have gone out for a mass ers. But with each successive executive campaign disgusted people around the world. all walks of life came into the streets to call for marches for Jobs, Justice and the Climate on order, he is being met with masses of But a day after he was sworn in, massive an end to the racist law. April 29. people mobilizing and resisting. women’s marches took place, with millions The Obama administration was forced to Everyone reading this paper needs to find out The racist killings at the Islamic Cultural participating around the world and a colossal veto the Keystone XL pipeline and pull back where the next rally is taking place and bring Centre in Québec City are the culmination of 300+ actions in the US. Thousands more held from the attack on the Standing Rock Sioux, family, friends, classmates or co-workers. The a decades-long demonization of Muslims. It an LGBTQ dance party at the home of bigot who were defending their land from the Dakota events of the last few weeks show that as bad as is the product of the Islamophobia pedaled vice-president Mike Pence’s home. Access pipeline. Now, Trump is going on the it may seem, resistance can and must be built. CARBON TAXES A neoliberal ‘solution’ to the climate crisis by Eric Lescarbeau The National Climate Strategy announced by Justin Trudeau in December absolves both the fossil fuel corporations and the Federal government of responsibility for reducing carbon emissions and places it squarely on the shoulders of working class consumers. By setting a national price on carbon Trudeau has set up an unjust transition that leaves it up to the market to solve the crisis without touching the profits of the major fossil fuel companies and without hindering a second the expansion of the Tar Sands. Much to their shame, broad sections of the liberal left have embraced free market solutions to the climate crisis and abandoned any serious push for solutions that redistribute wealth to pay for a just transition. Not only have carbon taxes proven to be ineffective in reducing emissions, they have also undermined the struggle for climate justice. In Alberta, the Notley government has introduced carbon Supporters of the Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign march in the taxes this year after cutting royalties Women’s March on Washington in Toronto on January 21, 2017. for the oil companies by $1 billion and giving them billions more in subsidies. Effectively this means working class families are being taxed, in the middle of a major unemployment crisis, so the oil companies can get bailed out. Not surprisingly, the Alberta NDP’s Paid sick days key support has plummeted as they delay promised spending on healthcare and education in favour of helping the oil companies. This has opened the door to Trump-style politics and a growing right wing backlash. For years BC’s carbon tax has been in the Fight for $15 held up by “experts” left and right as proof that carbon taxes work. However, a Food and Water Watch report, “The BC by Jesse McLaren have paid sick days or if they are required to kane, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Chicago, Cook Carbon Tax: A failed experiment in Market- get a sick note. County, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Berkely, based Solutions to Climate Change,” Precarious work is a threat to your health. Not only does this prolong their illnesses by Morristown and Plainfield. As Los Angeles released last October has thoroughly Poverty wages undermine access to the social preventing them from recuperating at home, McDonald’s worker Rosangela Bañuelos ex- debunked this and shown that the tax determinants of health—like food, shelter, but it also puts others at risk—especially in plained, “LA city council voted to double our was and continues to be ineffective. clothing, education, which is why there’s a food service or healthcare. A Study by Centre paid sick days from 3 to 6. This didn’t happen It is certainly true that emissions did clear correlation between wealth and health. for Disease Control found that more than half by luck, but because workers and the commu- fall significantly in 2008, the year the Poverty wages also undermine access to of food service workers had gone to work sick, nity made our voices heard.” tax was introduced, but this was also healthcare, preventing those with the greatest the most common reason being that the restau- In Ontario, workers and communities doing the year of the global financial crisis, health needs from filling their prescription rant did not offer paid sick days. Half of these the same, uniting for decent work, including which caused carbon emissions to fall in and accessing dental, physiotherapy and other paid sick days, fairer scheduling, respect at provinces across Canada. Emissions in health services. By combining low income work and an end to racism and Islamophobia BC have continued to rise since then in with unstable and stressful conditions, precari- The Fight in the workplace. spite of annual increases to the tax. ous work is a threat to health. In the next few months the government Carbon taxes are flat consumption As World Health Organization explains, “A will release the final recommendations for the taxes that are based on the idea that number of employment-related conditions are for $15 and Changing Workplace Review, a rare chance everyone should pay an equal share associated with poorer health status, including to improve the Employment Standards Act according to what they consume, ignoring unemployment and precarious work …Mor- Fairness is making and Labour Relations Act that affects millions the fact that exploitation of the earth and tality is significantly higher among temporary of workers. While the bosses are pushing to exploitation of working people goes hand workers compared to permanent workers. maintain the precarious status quo, the Fight in hand. Most workers live paycheque to Poor mental health outcomes are associated work healthier, by for $15 and Fairness is raising demands that paycheque and barely have the means with precarious employment (eg informal improve work, all of which would improve to consume their basic needs while the work, temporary contracts, and part-time health: decent hours, universal standards and rich who live off their backs have endless work). Workers who perceive work insecu- raising wages and respect at work would reduce stress; the right means to consume. rity experience significant adverse effects on to organize and unionize would allow workers their physical and mental health…Stress at gaining sick days to push for healthier workplaces; and paid sick A worker’s climate plan work is associated with a 50% excess risk of days would allow workers to recover while To build a force powerful enough to coronary heart disease, and there is consistent keeping the community safe. beat the oil lobby the climate justice evidence that high job demand, low-control, workers went to work sick to avoid loss of pay Pressure from the campaign has already movement must raise demands for and effort-reward imbalance are risk factors for and a quarter went to work sick because of fear pushed the Ontario NDP to call for a $15 reforms that working class people are mental and physical health problems” of losing their job. minimum wage and a recent CBC news report prepared to fight for: demands that The requirement for sick notes compounds shows that the Liberals are now considering in- redistribute the wealth of the fossil fuel Sick days and sick notes the problem—by unnecessarily sending sick cluding a $15 minimum wage in their election economy to end inequality. To add insult to injury, many precarious workers to clinics and hospitals just to get platform for June 2018—tacking left as they Instead of taxes on consumption we workers do not get any paid sick days or even notes, taking away their time for recovery, tak- did the last election.