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The division within the environmental movement between market ecologism and ecosocialism has become increasingly clear with the failure of Copenhagen and the promise of Cochabamba. This issue of CD focuses on the rising tide of ecosocialism. We feature an exclusive interview with ecosocialist founder Joel Kovel...

The Good Food for All Festival is back and bigger than ever! Join us on September 18 for a fun-filled—and entirely free!— day of entertainment, kids' activities, music and, of course, lots and lots of delicious food. Hosted by broadcaster and author Jane Farrow, the day features the Food Network's Food Jammers and their crazy culinary contraptions; music by Nine Mile and Samba Squad; a community cook-off (you be the judge); a farmers' market; samples from The Stop kitchen; a bike-repair clinic; a swap shop and much more. Kids will enjoy live animals, food competitions (with cookie rewards!) and, of course, the ever-popular bouncy castle. Join us for what is always a wonderful day celebrating our neighbourhood and healthy and delicious food.

When: Saturday, Sept 18, noon til 3 pm

Where: 1884 Davenport (at Symington)

How much: Entirely free!

The Good Food for All Festival is back and bigger than ever! Join us on September 18 for a fun-filled—and entirely free!— day of entertainment, kids' activities, music and, of course, lots and lots of delicious food. Hosted by broadcaster and author Jane Farrow, the day features the Food Network's Food Jammers and their crazy culinary contraptions; music by Nine Mile and Samba Squad; a community cook-off (you be the judge); a farmers' market; samples from The Stop kitchen; a bike-repair clinic; a swap shop and much more. Kids will enjoy live animals, food competitions (with cookie rewards!) and, of course, the ever-popular bouncy castle. Join us for what is always a wonderful day celebrating our neighbourhood and healthy and delicious food.

When: Saturday, Sept 18, noon til 3 pm

Where: 1884 Davenport (at Symington)

How much: Entirely free!

People move across borders from necessity or desperation, providing the citizens of the territory they enter with an unfree workforce that is often used to undermine the rights of more established workers. More than race, more than class, more than gender - but interacting powerfully with all three - the colour of one's passport, or the misfortune of having been displaced from one's country of origin, can do more to limit a person's opportunities than almost any other single factor. Declaring war on walls of all kinds, Briarpatch explores the politics of migration in the 'freedom of movement' issue.

On 7 April, Freda Guttman, a 76-year-old Jewish Montrealer, received a visit from agents of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). She slammed the door on them so it's not clear if the visit was related to her role in Tadamon!, a Middle East solidarity collective, or her friendship with Canadian activist Stefan Christoff. A tall, mild-mannered 29-year-old, Christoff has been one of Montreal's most effective grassroots activists for the past decade.

Here is yet another book on the 2008-09 financial crisis and its fallout. One might wonder why anyone should pick up Laxer's book after Paul Krugman reissued his 1999 Return of Depression Economics, expanded with an update on the recent crisis. Certainly, Laxer is a prolific writer on Canadian political economy, but Krugman is a Noble Prize-winning economist, New York Times columnist, and the most referenced author in Laxer's book. Still, the remainder of this review will present reasons to get a copy of Beyond the Bubble.

In the last week of July 2010, workers of United Steelworkers Local 9537, who have been locked out of their workplace and on the picket-lines for nearly five months, found a big pile of shit sitting right smack-dab by their picket-line outside of a warehouse in Vaughan, just north of Toronto.

The 20th century is often called the American century because of the US's advance during that time to become the single greatest power in the world - economically, industrially and militarily. The century's story covers its rise and the beginning of its long slow and brutal decline. However, the 20th century could also be called the women's century.

by Mike Constable

Something is rotten in the province of Alberta! And it's not just the tar sands. It's the way political and corporate elites do whatever it takes to extinguish potential threats to the bituminous megaproject. The attempt to protect the tar sands from criticism can be framed as a part of a broader effort to protect the 'rights' of private interests to profit from bitumen production.

On March 13, 2008, Canada's Parliament voted to extend the country's military 'mission' in Afghanistan to July 2011. The motion by the minority Conservative government was supported by the opposition Liberals. The warmakers correctly estimated that fixing an exit date would deflect mounting opposition to the war among the Canadian public and buy time for Canada's continued participation.

What: COURT APPEARANCE FOR OCAP MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS ACCUSED OF 'FORCIBLE ENTRY' OF LIBERAL PARTY HQ
When: Monday, August 30, 9.00 AM
Where: Outside College Park Court (College and Yonge)

Nine of the eleven people arrested and charged last month over a brief occupation of the Liberal Party headquarters are set to appear in court on Monday. They are accused of mischief and forcible entry. OCAP and allies will gather in front of the courthouse to condemn these charges and demand they be dropped, along with trespass summonses that were issued to two others at the Liberal offices.

This is a 'set date' appearance when it is normal to provide another court date and (sometimes) provide the accused with 'disclosure', i.e. the evidence the Crown intends to introduce at trial. We are demanding of the Liberal Attorney General (Chris Bentley), however, that this date be used to drop these inflated and politically motivated charges, just as we demand he drop all remaining G20 charges.

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In the past year Amir Khadir, Québec Solidaire's first elected MNA, has become one of Quebec's most popular personalities. He has won plaudits from all observers and more importantly, from the public for his performance in and out of the Quebec parliament.

Our Global Roots Garden is thriving! Please join coordinator Liz Curran for a free tour of the garden where you'll meet the senior and youth gardeners tending the plots and enjoy some tasty snacks. As well, youth from CultureLink's Summer Theatre program will be performing scenes from their original play at 7:30 pm. All are welcome! For more information, contact Liz liz [at] thestop [dot] org or 416-651-7867 ext. 27.

When: Thursday, September 2, 5:30 pm
Where: Global Roots Garden, The Stop Community Food Centre, Wychwood Barns (Barn #5), 601 Christie St. (at St. Clair)
How much: Free

Photo courtesy Laura Berman/GreenFuse Photos

Our Global Roots Garden is thriving! Please join coordinator Liz Curran for a free tour of the garden where you'll meet the senior and youth gardeners tending the plots and enjoy some tasty snacks. As well, youth from CultureLink's Summer Theatre program will be performing scenes from their original play at 7:30 pm. All are welcome! For more information, contact Liz liz [at] thestop [dot] org or 416-651-7867 ext. 27.

When: Thursday, September 2, 5:30 pm
Where: Global Roots Garden, The Stop Community Food Centre, Wychwood Barns (Barn #5), 601 Christie St. (at St. Clair)
How much: Free

Photo courtesy Laura Berman/GreenFuse Photos

The two major civil service unions on strike against the South African government vow to intensify pressure in coming days, in a struggle pitting a million members of the middle and lower ranks of society against a confident government leadership fresh from hosting the FIFA World Cup.

This issue of Relay focuses on the battle over public sector austerity in the wake of the G20 meetings, with contributions from Leo Panitch, Sam Gindin, Jane D'Arista, Jim Stanford, Paul Kellogg and others on assessing the economics and political challenges of the turn to austerity in the capitalist heartlands of North America and Europe. Contributions by Daniel Bensaid and John Riddell examine the political tactic of the 'united front' in its historical and theoretical dimensions.

Marta Harnecker looks at new organizational developments in Latin America. From a similar angle, Ian MacKay, Sam Gindin and Wayne Dealy look at the history of the left in Canada and ask whether new efforts to form workers' assemblies might be one measure to address organizational decline. The organizational challenges and the emerging left are also looked at in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Netherlands. And more: the dialectics of capital, Canada and Apartheid Israel, ecology, the Hurt Locker, workers' councils in Iran.

Toronto - No One Is Illegal–Toronto joins the Canada wide call for actions on 21 August, 2010 to demand that the Tamil migrants that have arrived on the MV Sun Sea be immediately released from detention, that their rights as migrants be upheld and they be granted permanent status and that the racist criminalization of refugee claimants immediately cease.

A 40 feet x 6 feet banner was dropped over the Gardiner Expressway near Roncesvalles. See images at http://twitpic.com/2gv29m and http://twitpic.com/2gv304

Rallies are taking place in Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Victoria, Kitchener-Waterloo and unsurrendered Wet’suwet’en Territories throughout the week. Details for these actions can be found here http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=2198

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Payoff from infrastructure and education spending greater than lost purchasing power.

This summer, our Wychwood Barns location has blossomed into full, verdant glory. The sheltered garden has grown lush and productive, the outdoor pizza oven is a roaring success. And throughout the open space of Barn 5 lie a cluster of abundant demonstration gardens filled with a dazzling array of vegetables and herbs—the Global Roots Garden.

The seven Global Roots plots are each devoted to particular ethnic communities with large populations in Toronto—Chinese, South Asian, Somalian, Italian, Latin American, Polish and Filipino—and each grows an immensely diverse range of vegetables and herbs, including okra, bitter melon, cardamom, chiles, eggplant and lemongrass. The gardens themselves are tended by twenty-five seniors and fourteen youth (mostly high school students), many of whom got involved through our partnership with CultureLink, a newcomer settlement group in Southwest Toronto. They meet once a week to tend the gardens, socialize and cook food together (seniors from the South Asian Women’s Centre have even made roti in our pizza oven).

Liz Curran, our YIMBY coordinator, has been supervising Global Roots. The idea behind it, she says, is multifold: “There are seniors from around the world here with a wealth of knowledge about growing food. Language barriers sometimes prevent that knowledge from getting out. So we wanted to draw it out in a very public space.” The gardens are designed to show visitors the remarkable variety of crops that can, given the right know-how and experience, thrive in our climate, particularly crops that would appeal to Toronto’s ethnically diverse population. “These are plants people have fond memories of but may not know they can grow here,” Curran says. As well, the relatively tiny plots—they are each about 20 x 13 feet—demonstrate how much food you can produce in a small space.

Bringing together seniors, many of whom were food producers in their native countries, with youth who don’t necessarily have any experience growing food, makes the exchange of knowledge even more explicit. Many of the beds are raised, allowing seniors to work without straining their backs, and most of the gardens are wheelchair-accessible. The senior gardeners have also been involved in the “New Crop Animation Project,” a collaboration between The Stop and the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre in the Niagara Region. In this project, the Global Roots gardeners have been taste-testing and providing horticultural assistance to Greenbelt farmers who are also raising crops—like callaloo and the ever-popular bitter melon—not traditionally grown in the province.

For more information about the Global Roots Garden, contact Liz at liz [at] thestop [dot] org or 416-651-7867 ext 27.

The Global Roots Garden was made possible thanks to support from Live Green Toronto.

Photographs courtesy Laura Berman/GreenFuse Photos