To keep up with the growing demand for socialist ideas in Canada we increased the frequency of our publication to every 2 weeks. To celebrate this important move forward we organized an ongoing, nationwide campaign which includes launch meetings in 10 cities from coast-to-coast!
Last weekend we held meetings in Montreal, Ottawa and Victoria. The previous weekend we held meetings in Toronto, Waterloo, Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax and Kingston which you can read about here. So far the launch meetings have been a huge success: across the country over 400 people participated, more than 50 people took out a subscription to the paper, and we sold well over $2,500 worth of literature! Another 50 people have subscribed to our paper through our outreach efforts promoting the launch meetings. So far the campaign has been very successful, but we are not finished yet! We are continuing to reach out to our supporters to subscribe to our publication, and we are organizing our final launch meeting in Edmonton in January.
Montreal
With more than 120 participants and a fantastic mood, the Montreal launch was a resounding success! People started pouring in even before the announced starting time, so much that we feared we would not have enough room for everyone.
The first speaker of the night was Fehr. He gave an overview of the history of La Riposte socialiste and Fightback in Montreal, how we went from not even a handful of people in the mid-2000s to being the largest Marxist group in the city. Fehr was followed by Benoit, an editor of our French-language paper La Riposte socialiste. Benoit spoke about the role of the workers’ press historically in the Marxist movement. The final speaker was Julien, who is also an editor of La Riposte socialiste. Julien spoke about the early days of Fightback and tied it to the present fight for socialism.
We sold a dozen subscriptions to our publications, including our English-language paper Fightback and our French-language paper La Riposte socialiste. We also made more than $500 of literature sales and about $200 in donations at the door. The speeches, size and organization certainly had quite the effect on all the participants, with people commenting that they were impressed and inspired, and a few asking how they could help. One participant sent us an email after the event saying they “came back with a revived sense of hope”.
At the end of the night, as is our tradition, comrades sang “The Internationale” in English and French.
Ottawa
Thirty people came out to our launch meeting in Ottawa! Speeches were delivered by comrades Jordan, Christian and Leyla. The speeches were well received and four participants agreed to get involved in the organization. Comrades sold almost $100 of literature and an attendee took out a subscription to the paper.
Victoria
Twenty attended our launch meeting in Victoria. Comrades Adam, Tristan and Mackenzie gave speeches on the importance of the paper in building the revolutionary organization and winning over working people to Marxism. After the speeches, attendees discussed a wide variety of important topics such as how to build a revolutionary organization, the disruptions and shortages in the economy, the nature of speculative assets and the basics of Marxist theory. Many of the participants expressed enthusiasm about getting involved with the organization. This enthusiasm is reflected best by the fact that 10 participants, or half those in attendance, took out a subscription to our paper!
Demand for revolutionary ideas
Capitalism is in crisis and there is a growing demand for revolutionary ideas. It is our job to provide the ideas that the movement needs in order to win. The enthusiasm of our launch meetings shows that we have the momentum necessary to achieve this goal. With a fortnightly paper we can respond to the needs of the movement more quickly. But a fortnightly paper is not enough to revive the Canadian labor movement from the sorry state it is in today. Eventually we must convert Fightback into a weekly paper, before we get to being a daily publication that can go head to head with the capitalist press. To get there, we will need your help. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the paper at www.marxist.ca/subscribe. And if you are in Edmonton, make sure you attend our upcoming launch event. Contact us if you want to help out and join the fight against capitalism.
