Happy Labour Day.

There is a lot to celebrate this particular Labour Day. With the resolution of the dispute between the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the union movement – divided last year – has at last come back together.

Nurses and teachers – both relatively recent recruits to the house of labour – have been in the forefront of the struggle to save public services again this year. The wonderful victory of the Nova Scotia nurses is especially sweet.

A rabble-rousing in cahoots partner, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), is also in my thoughts on this Labour Day, as its members continue a difficult struggle with their employers – and our government.

This year, the anti-globalization movement – with labour as its backbone – has reached new heights. The mass demonstration in Quebec City against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) brought unions from Quebec and English Canada together with social movements from across the country. It was a diverse and colourful action. Despite the differences in tactics, it showed the power of a united left.

Most of all, we can celebrate the strength of labour in Canada. After almost a decade of right-wing assaults, Canada’s trade unions remain strong.

rabble‘s First Labour Day
This is rabble.ca‘s first Labour Day. It’s hard for the people who work here to believe that this project has only been online for four and a half months. The folks at rabble are proud that we have been able to bring news of the workers’ movement directly to our readers.

Through our in cahoots section, rabble.ca was there:

  • as the CAW and SEIU resolved their dispute;
  • as health-care workers struggled for contracts in Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan;
  • as National Gallery workers issued their call for respect;
  • as British Columbia’s teachers lobbied against regressive essential services legislation;
  • as PSAC workers escalated their demands for fair wages.

If the mainstream media presents the world from the point of view of the elite, rabble tries to present the world from the point of view of the rabble – ordinary people struggling to improve their lives and the world around them.

This fall, rabble is emerging from the nurturing arms of its start-up funders to stand on its own feet, with revenue-generating services, like advertising.

United We Stand
To continue to cover the issues that are important to you, as well as provide a space where progressive people can freely communicate with each other, rabble needs your support. And solidarity. rabble.ca is a non-profit, independent, self-funding project of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The people working on this project are very excited about what we have achieved so far.

We hope you share that excitement.

It costs about $20 a month to subscribe to a mainstream newspaper, and you can be sure that the paper barely notices the favour. rabble folks, on the other hand, are so appreciative of such a gesture that we send a signed copy of a book you’ve been wanting (and that we have on offer) to any such contributors. A donation to rabble is a gesture of solidarity.

donate to rabble.ca

in cahoots
We now have twenty-four in cahoots partners, and would like to have a lot more. Think of in cahoots as a content co-op. Several times a week, rabble-rousers‘ editor, John Hall, visits partner Websites and profiles information on rabble.ca. Whether it’s about a campaign, a research project or a profile, in cahoots brings our readers information straight from the source, and brings our partners a new audience.

Since this is Labour Day, rabble.ca wants to acknowledge its union partners in particular: the British Columbia Teachers Federation, Canadian Auto Workers, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees, National Farmers’ Union, Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation and Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Your organization can also be in cahoots with rabble.ca. Just click here.

Audience
Speaking of audience, rabble‘s continues to grow, even over the summer. The site averages nearly 3-million hits and 40,000 unique visitors per month. Almost one-third of our audience is under thirty.

With such a large and diverse audience, rabble provides unions, social-justice organizations and ethical businesses an opportunity to advertise their campaigns or products.

Readers will start to see ads on the site in a week or so. We rabblers promise to provide this service with our usual panache – tasteful, refined, yet with a certain impish twist. Eye-catching, yet discrete. Lovely, welcome companions to the site rather than oafish interlopers. You can be sure that, at this one upstart locale on the Internet, ads will definitely not be popping in your face or swallowing up your computer’s speed.

If your group or someone you know might benefit from our advertising service, please click here and check it out. In September, we will be running promotional ads. The full ad service begins in October.

Also, please do spread the word about rabble.ca. Put a rabble link on your Website. E-mail one of our articles to your friends. (Like this one right here! Scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a cute button saying, “e-mail this story.” Feel free to click it.) Better still, join the rabble by signing up for our mailing list.

In whatever way you can give it, rabble.ca could really use your support. The truth is, now that Conrad Black has abandoned this humble little nation, rabble no longer has access to the ready cash that it once did. (Just kidding.) We do, however, need you to help us continue producing what is, in my admittedly biased opinion, the finest progressive online publication in Canada, if not the world.

And once again the real point of this message: Happy Labour Day!

Judy Rebick

Judy Rebick

Judy Rebick is one of Canada’s best-known feminists. She was the founding publisher of rabble.ca , wrote our advice column auntie.com and was co-host of one of our first podcasts called Reel Women....