“File sharing was a problem for the major labels, but indpndnt musicians [were] finding ways to make downloads work — until streaming came along [+] convinced independent music fans to stop paying for them... [We have] billionaires creating problems to solve, but not solving problems that we have”

Aminah Sheikh on worker-to-worker solidarity via Canadian postal workers.

As the housing crisis deepens, advocates say it's time to stop treating homes as commodities that can be bought and sold. On the latest Breach Show, we broadcast a recent conversation between Chiara Padovani, @johncke.bsky.social , @ricardotranjan.bsky.social & @halfpastcapitalism.bsky.social

Bruno Dobrusin of YSW tenant union brings 🔥 at @housingjusticenow.bsky.social in Montreal–movement building keynote.

Montreal, Feb 27: Stop Poilievre's corporate power grab. 17h30 Metro Mont Royal

Interesting resource for community tech work in Toronto

A national rideshare worker cooperative aims to dethrone Lyft and Uber. The co-op guarantees its drivers 80% of the fare -- higher than its competitors. Profits are reinvested into the cooperative and returned to drivers, who have a say in the business. 🚗 jacobin.com/2024/12/a-na... drivers.coop

Italy's Marcora Law supports worker buyouts. Worker-owned cooperatives that have been established by workers purchasing a business facing closure or being put up for sale exhibit a 3-year survival rate of 87%, contrasting with the 48% survival rate of Italian enterprises. 👷 ica.coop/en/media/new...

The Liberal government has forced postal workers back to work. @halfpastcapitalism.bsky.social writes that this isn’t just a suppression of labour rights—it’s a missed opportunity to implement the visionary, green proposals of postal workers to reinvent the public service for the 21st century.

Forcing Canada's postal workers back to work is a violation of the right to collective bargaining. It's also a failure of imagination at every level of leadership. Latest in @thebreach.bsky.social breachmedia.ca/government-i...

Propaganda of the deed making a comeback in 2024 was not on our bingo card.

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗱𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗮 🎳 How does Canada's year of labour strife compare to ages past? Check it out yourself using this lightweight dashboard on work stoppages made with R, Quarto, and @datawrapper.de. rromard.quarto.pub/work-stoppag... #canlab #rstats #strike

Happy to announce Bluesky is outpacing Twitter as a source of referral traffic for Unrigged! Thank you for reading stories from our partner publications!

"There are significant design features to prevent capture, control, or extraction of rent of the overall atproto network." The "Is BlueSky really decentralized?" debate continues, with a designer of the AT Protocol weighing in.

Heading into another "year of cooperatives." Last one was in 2012.

Good thread about funding for decentralized platform development and the animating principles of Blue Sky and some of the parallel attempts. Wresting control of the social graph from billionaires is a consensus first step that makes lots of other things possible.

Meta seems to be attracting the ire of Canadian regulators by refusing to cooperate. There is still time to tweak Bill C-18 so they have to pay. pembinavalleyonline.com/articles/met...

Student strike for Palestine and divestment in Montreal.

Is BlueSky really federated and decentralized? This critique says not really. anderegg.ca/2024/11/15/m... I think the "Twitter five years ago" feel is a big part of this site's draw, but it's too bad the shift toward proper open protocols à la HTTP or NNTP is incremental at best.

Also check out: @solidarityeconomy.bsky.social, the fediverse home of SEIZE, which runs an organizing curriculum and works on strategic incubation for sectoral transformation. (solidarityeconomy.ca)

Interesting debrief of Barcelona's shot at public-interest data regimes, free software and a peoples' digital agenda—by @kinokofry.bsky.social et alia. Moving a bureaucracy means skill, contacts and strategy. And even that might not be enough! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A few thoughts on engines of economic transformation. 🧵 1. The best quality of labour organizing is its potential to unite large numbers of workers and identify common interests and fight for them. While this include a variety of policies and demands, usually the most unifying fights involve wages.

Hey Blue Sky! Podcast/show here. Visionary alternative institutions 🤝 Labour militancy Excited to be joining the fediverse. Here to talk about the seeds of post-capitalism, utopian pathways, and practical cooperativism with social movement flavour.