TORONTO—The Communist League in Canada launched its election campaign here August 18. It is standing Joe Young for Toronto mayor (above), Beverly Bernardo for city council in Ward 14, and Michel Dugré for city council in Ward 12. Young is a meat packer and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers. Bernardo and Dugré are garment workers.

“The Communist League campaign presents a working-class alternative to all capitalist parties,” said Young. “The workplace deaths of nearly 1,000 workers across Canada in 2004 are a key reason to build and extend union power.”

The communist candidates are campaigning in support of workers’ struggles to organize unions and use union power to resist the bosses’ attacks, he said. They champion the land fight by Natives from the Six Nations Reserve in Caledonia, Ontario, as well as the Quebecois fight for independence. They call for the pulling out now all Canadian and other foreign troops from Afghanistan.

—ROBERT SIMMS