Bread &amp; Wild Roses

1 May

Marxist readings can be difficult! That's why B&WR is putting together IskraNotes for all readings in our Socialism 101 course. These notes will highlight key concepts, important quotes, and provide discussion questions to facilitate discussions with your study group.

Bread & Wild Roses' statement on the 2026 Alberta Referendum. We cannot let the results of Question 10 distract us from the province's hostility towards migrants and the real work that needs to be done. #abpoli #marxism #socialism

To learn more about migrant organizing in Edmonton, check out Migrante and International Migrants Alliance (IMA). If there are any other groups whose work you believe is vital in helping migrants in Alberta, please respond or shoot us a DM!

Join us for the Kapit-Bisig Conference recap and potluck this upcoming Sunday, October 11th at 5PM! #yeg #kapit-bisig

Bread & Wild Roses@breadandwildroses.bsky.social

Come check out the Philippine Edmonton Solidarity Organization's Fundraiser & Social this Sunday, September 20th from 3-8PM! Lend your support to the Kapit-Bisig conference, learn about Martial Law in the Philippines and sing karaoke with us! #yeg www.instagram.com/p/DdNrGy9SND...

docs.google.comPhilippine Solidarity Report Back Event, Kapit Bisig: Sunday Oct 11 @5pmLONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY! Join us as we at PESO-FFPS Edmonton share education, lessons, and experiences from the Global Philippine Solidarity Conference, 'Kapit Bisig,' held in Toronto late...

RSVP here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

breadandwildroses.wordpress.comCanadian Un-Democracy: The SenateThis October, Albertans will go to the polls to answer 10 referendum questions posed by our UCP government, an opportunistic political move meant to appeal to the party’s separatist base. Each question will be answered on a separate ballot, multiplying the workload of elections staff. Some estimates place the cost of this referendum as high as $130,000,000, a burden placed squarely on the shoulders of Albertans (including immigrant Albertans - who, despite the implication made by these referendum questions, are already paying for the costs of government).

From the article: The senate’s validity has come into question before. During his time as Prime Minister, Stephen Harper proposed a reform to introduce term limits to the Upper Chamber.

Bread & Wild Roses@breadandwildroses.bsky.social

Canadian Un-Democracy: The Senate This October, Albertans will go to the polls to answer 10 referendum questions posed by our UCP government, an opportunistic political move meant to appeal to the party’s separatist base. Each question will be answered on a separate ballot, multiplying the…

The push for proportional representation has only been growing in popularity for the past few years, yet it isn’t even being considered in a referendum purportedly addressing the topic of democracy.

In all likelihood, the UCP sees the senate, with its entrenchment of Liberal influence, as a potential stumbling block for its own agenda on the national stage. #alberta #referendum2026 #socialism

From the article: The senate’s validity has come into question before. During his time as Prime Minister, Stephen Harper proposed a reform to introduce term limits to the Upper Chamber.

Bread & Wild Roses@breadandwildroses.bsky.social

Prominent leaders of the NDP, such as Jagmeet Singh and the late Jack Layton, have also, at one time or another, taken up the cause of senate abolition. So why is this point being sandwiched in among declarations that strip back social programs and protections for conservatives’ boogiemen-du-jour?

The framing of the question would have you believe that it’s a point of principle – that the UCP wants to work with other provinces to make Canada more democratic. At the same time, completely absent from the referendum is any mention of reforming our archaic first-past-the-post electoral system.

18 Sept

Location confirmed: Join us at Iron Workers Local 720 this Sunday!

Bread & Wild Roses@breadandwildroses.bsky.social

13 Sept

Happy Pride from B&WR! This Edmonton Pride, we want to highlight a fight for queer Charter Rights that took place in our own backyard, the Vriend v. Alberta case!

Conscious or not, this is a tactic of class war. This is why it’s essential to forge alliances and grow a sense of unity and responsibility towards one another, something that we’re already seeing at strikes, Queer rights demonstrations and rallies for Palestine.

If we can learn anything from the Vriend case and the events that followed, it’s that the weapons they use against us they use against all of us and so we must stand together as one. Solidarity forever. Protect trans kids. #pride #lgbt #marxism #socialism #yeg

Happy Pride from B&WR! This Edmonton Pride, we want to highlight a fight for queer Charter Rights that took place in our own backyard, the Vriend v. Alberta case!

It’s no coincidence that the notwithstanding clause was applied against workers and trans people, nor against gay people or victims of forced sterilization.

By strategically targeting elements of the working class, especially those most vulnerable, the capitalist class sparks division through bigotry and deters the formation of a strong shared working class identity. All so they can extract more wealth from us and worsen our overall working conditions.

Happy Pride from B&WR! This Edmonton Pride, we want to highlight a fight for queer Charter Rights that took place in our own backyard, the Vriend v. Alberta case!

While this saber-rattling didn’t amount to anything at the time, it did set a precedent that we have felt in the present day.

In the past year, the United Conservative Party government has enthusiastically brandished the notwithstanding clause to trample labour protections with the Back to School Act, as well as transgender rights through Bill 9.

Happy Pride from B&WR! This Edmonton Pride, we want to highlight a fight for queer Charter Rights that took place in our own backyard, the Vriend v. Alberta case!

It was hard fought, but in the end, Queer Canadians persevered! In 1998, the court ruled in Vriend’s favour, establishing that provincial human rights laws could not exclude sexual orientation from protection against discrimination.

After such a historic victory, Vriend came home to outcries from anti-Queer interest groups and even members of the standing Alberta government demanding that the court’s decision be overridden by the infamous notwithstanding clause.

Happy Pride from B&WR! This Edmonton Pride, we want to highlight a fight for queer Charter Rights that took place in our own backyard, the Vriend v. Alberta case!

His complaint was rejected on the basis that sexuality was not among the protected grounds for discrimination under the province’s Individual Rights Protection Act.

Vriend took his fight to the court system, backed by Alberta’s Queer community and the Gay and Lesbian Awareness organization (GALA), in what became a grueling, years-long battle. The Vriend v Alberta case eventually ended up in front of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Happy Pride from B&WR! This Edmonton Pride, we want to highlight a fight for queer Charter Rights that took place in our own backyard, the Vriend v. Alberta case!

In 1991, Delwin Vriend was fired from his position as a lab instructor for The King’s College (now The King’s University) in Edmonton after disclosing his sexual orientation to the College president the previous year.

Vriend attempted to file a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission for discrimination, as his sexuality was the only reason given by the College for his termination.

14 Aug

Our federal and provincial governments are stumbling over each other to be the first and biggest adopter of #ai architecture, all in the name of “the economy” and “job creation”. But what does A.I. integration actually look like to the tech workers that it’s being thrust upon? #marxism #socialism

breadandwildroses.wordpress.comAutomation for All: De-Skilling the Tech SectorWith Mark Carney’s “AI for All” strategy, the Liberal government has enthusiastically embraced artificial intelligence as the saviour of the Canadian economy – to the tune of $2,000,000,000. …

14 Aug

In our newest article, “Automation for All: De-Skilling the Tech Sector” (breadandwildroses.wordpress.com/2026/08/10/a...), we explore the new automation wave, the promises being made by A.I. salesmen, and how these changes actually impact the lives of everyday software developers.

breadandwildroses.wordpress.comIskraNotes: “On the Questions of the Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”This is an excerpt from a 1967 speech delivered by Kim Il Sung, then Central Committee General Secretary of the Worker’s Party of Korea. Per the (perhaps overly descriptive) title, it addresses the question of exactly what denotes the transition period between capitalism and socialism, as well as the function of the workers’ state (or dictatorship of the proletariat) throughout the essential milestones of socialist construction.

11 Aug

IskraNotes: “On the Questions of the Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat” This is an excerpt from a 1967 speech delivered by Kim Il Sung, then Central Committee General Secretary of the Worker’s Party of Korea. Per the (perhaps overly…

From our new article The Transition Period & Socialist Construction (breadandwildroses.wordpress.com/2026/06/12/t...) The Path to Socialism:

3. The Final Victory of Socialist Construction The third milestone in the transition from capitalism to socialism is represented by the dissolution of capitalism and imperialism which can only result from the victory of the socialist revolution in every country on Earth.

Only under these conditions will socialist societies be free from the threat of foreign interference that would see the restoration of the capitalist system and capitalist class relations. #marxism #socialism #communism #leftism

From our new article The Transition Period & Socialist Construction (breadandwildroses.wordpress.com/2026/06/12/t...) The Path to Socialism:

Where the foundation of the primary victory of socialist construction can be found in the socialist republic carrying out an unyielding confrontation with the capitalist class, the complete victory of socialist construction requires the socialist republic to carry out a more protracted and -

- complicated process of integrating the lumpen and middle classes into life under a socialist system in a manner which in some appropriate combination encourages and pressures these classes to shed their distinctions and become indiscernible from from the class of worker-citizens.

From our new article The Transition Period & Socialist Construction (breadandwildroses.wordpress.com/2026/06/12/t...) The Path to Socialism:

- which is capable of providing a firm material basis for continuous improvements in both production and the standards of living in society.

2. The Complete Victory of Socialist Construction The second milestone in the transition from capitalism to socialism is represented by the disappearance of class divisions generally through the development of the position of the worker-citizens into a universal social position in society.

From our new article The Transition Period & Socialist Construction (breadandwildroses.wordpress.com/2026/06/12/t...) The Path to Socialism:

1. The Primary Victory of Socialist Construction The first milestone in the transition from capitalism to socialism is represented by abolition of capitalist private property through the seizure of the means of production by a socialist republic and cementing the socialist system of economy -

- as the dominant form of economy in society. In order to achieve this a socialist republic must establish industrial policies and economic plans for developing a robust industrial backbone -

31 July

From our new article What is Socialism? (breadandwildroses.wordpress.com/2026/06/12/w...) Within Marxism-Leninism socialism is recognized as being a system defined by a number of key features which come together in a society which adheres to the fundamental law of socialist society:

31 July

4. exploitation – the basis by which the exploiting classes, such as the capitalists, derive their livelihoods, partly or wholly, on the labour of others – has been eliminated.