CATEGORIES

PLATFORMS FOR PEOPLE, NOT PROFIT

Digital platforms boast that they’ve “democratized” cultural production. But what would truly democratic platforms look like in Canada?

ORGANIZING THROUGH LOSS IN THE HEART OF OIL COUNTRY

The story of climate justice organizing in Alberta, at the heart of the tarsands, is the story of a group of young activists learning what it means to lose, and keep on fighting

GROWING THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

How unions are using community gardens to engage members, nourish communities, and help strikers weather the picket line

A NEW ERA FOR OLD CROW

In the Yukon’s northernmost community, the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation is reckoning with how to preserve their land and culture, amid a warming climate and an influx of tourists

“At Least Hookers Get Wages”

The risky business of sex work in the gig economy

The Literal – And Literary – Futures We Build

Briarpatch editor Saima Desai talks to two judges of our Writing in the Margins contest about Idle No More and MMIWG, ethical kinship, writing queer sex, and their forthcoming work.

The Cost Of A T-Shirt

In Honduras, women maquila workers are fighting back against the multinational garment companies that they say are endangering their health and safety.

Milking Prison Labour

Canada’s prison farms are being reopened. But when prisoners will be paid pennies a day, and the fruits of their labour will likely be exported for profit, there’s little to celebrate.

Bringing Back The Beat

In mainstream media, labour journalism has been replaced by financial reporting and business sections. But journalism students are raising the labour beat from the grave.

There's No Journalism On A Dead Planet

Corporate media owners are killing local newspapers – which is making it impossible for everyday people to understand the on-the-ground impacts of the climate crisis

The Loud Silence Of Queer Poverty

The loud silence of queer poverty In every sense that matters, poverty is an LGBTQ2S issue. So why aren’t mainstream Canadian LGBTQ2S organizations treating it as such? And who’s picking up their slack?

Reading Truth To Power

The struggle over whom Winnipeg’s downtown library belongs to serves as an unexpectedly sophisticated example of what’s possible when leftists organize outside of the electoral sphere and commit to winning a single protracted struggle.

Not Just A Pretty Instagram Profile

Lessons from high-school organizers fighting Ford’s education cuts

Mutual AID For The End Of The World

Conversations with disabled, trans, and racialized survivalists who are changing what it means to be a disaster prepper

A Dignified Death

Winner of the 2019 Andrea Walker Memorial Prize for writing on women’s and non-binary people’s health

The McGill Experiments

The McGill Experiments

A Thousand More Beds

The homeless shelter system in Canada’s largest city is in crisis. Toronto’s sky-high rental market,government cuts to social housing and assistance benefits, and a city council that voted against immediate respite during a recent cold snap are jeopardizing the lives of homeless people.But anti-poverty and housing activists are fighting the systemic abandonment of homeless people, andthey’re winning important gains.

Distinct Histories, Shared Solidarity

Black and Indigenous activists’ reflections on land, policing, and gender

The Dangerous Illusion Of The Humane Prison

The right of trans prisoners in Canada to self-identify their gender is an important win. How can it be used to fuel – and not drain – our efforts towards a future without prisons?

'We Don't Need Permission To Be Free'

On January 1, 1994, the Zapatistas’ armed uprising seized several cities and towns in southern Mexico, on the same day that the NAFTA agreement took force. Now, as Trump threatens to rip up NAFTA and others seek to “modernize” it, it’s once again Indigenous peoples who will bear the fallout of neoliberal policies. In March of 2018, thousands of self-identified women Zapatistas and activists gathered in Chiapas to share their struggles and victories in building a world beyond capitalism.

Start-Up Nation, Apartheid State

The myth of “peaceful” R&D in Israel

'They Take My Labour, But Not My Family'

The federal government is preparing to end the Caregiver Program – and caregivers are fighting back by demanding permanent residency upon arrival

'To Create Other Worlds Inside This One'

An interview with Writing in the Margins judges Gwen Benaway, Alicia Elliott, and Jalani Morgan

Busted

Aaron Doncaster was fired from his job for organizing a union. But in Alberta, workers have new protection against union-busting bosses.

The Leftist's Case Against The Carbon Tax

It’s a fundamentally libertarian policy – and one that tends to just piss people off, not invigorate them about the possibility of a just and sustainable future.

Sending Josephine Home

Josephine Pelletier was shot to death by Calgary police in May. Her life and death shed light on the complicated interplay between colonialism, incarceration, and police brutality. This is her story.

The Battle For Heron Gate

Organizing from the ground up to fight one of the largest eviction campaigns in the country

TS Just Wanna Have Fun

“Okay, let’s do something about it.”

Checking In With The Oil Crowd

At the 50th annual Global Petroleum Show, are they planning a post-oil world, or digging into climate destruction?

Remembering The Drumheller Strike

“Hell’s Hole,” “the Devil’s Row,” and “the Western Front” – these were the nicknames for the coal mines of the Drumheller valley. In 1919, around 6,500 Drumheller coal miners walked off the job after voting to join the radical and militant One Big Union. Nearly a hundred years later, the 1919 Drumheller strike remains one of the most famous examples of workers’ power on the Prairies.