Two dozen people came together on March 9 in Fredericton to hear about an exciting new initiative in the capital.
Susan O’Donnell spoke first about why this meeting came about. The origins of this social movement lie in the New Brunswick Social Forum in 2008, from which the NB Media Co-op emerged. For O’Donnell, the “NB Media Co-op became a focus for social organizing in the province.”
O’Donnell worked on a committee with the NB Media Co-op and her SSHRC-funded CEDAR research project at St. Thomas University to organize another event, the fall 2025 Social Forum in Wolastokuk. Forty workshops were held over an October weekend, on a “wide range of issues” as well as an information fair of provincial social justice, labour, environmental, and educational organizations.
Three panels during the 2025 Social Forum were socialist focused, including a panel with the Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education. Social Forum organizers observed that there was a “significant interest” in the socialist activities and decided to act on it.
Socialist Project Fredericton is a “committee of the larger group,” the Socialist Project in Toronto. This was a choice in order to ensure “access to a larger capacity to share information and resources on socialism,” according to O’Donnell.
For Thom Workman, who is originally “from away,” the “history of genocide and exploitation” is much more evident in Fredericton than it was in Toronto, because of the presence of the Sitansisk First Nation, across from the former Fredericton opera hall, located at City Hall, which was built to announce the superiority of European culture.
Workman specified that the Socialist Project Fredericton group was “non-sectarian and non-programmatic.”
Workman outlined the reasons why participants were probably in the room: “We know capitalism’s not working.” Itemizing some of the contemporary issues, he assured attendees: “We’re the optimists, we look out and say, ‘it doesn’t have to be this way’.” Socialism is the “conviction that we can move from a profit-driven system to system that is for the better of all.”
Workman studied with Leo Panitch at York University in Toronto and considered him a friend. Panitch died in late 2020 and the Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education was founded in his honour.
Under the auspices of the Panitch School, Workman is running a new course, Socialism and Capitalism, over six weeks this March and April. An introduction to socialism course has existed for five years in Toronto, created by the committee there, but the Fredericton offering is new.
Workman has come up with topics for the course on fundamental topics such as “the nuts and bolts of capitalism,” “imperialism,” and “unions and the labour regime.” The free series of 1.5 hour courses will last 8 weeks and begin on March 16 at 7:00 PM, offered in downtown Fredericton. Registration is currently capped at 15 for the first iteration, and the course will be offered again in September.
As well as the course, Socialist Project Fredericton will organize workshops on housing and other “hot-button topics” in New Brunswick, and is planning an event for International Workers’ Day on May 1. The idea is to make a space for continued conversation on socialism.
Attendees at the first meeting introduced themselves and were from all walks of life: diverse backgrounds, ages, genders, education levels, political leanings, and social classes. As for their reasons for attending, individuals voiced curiosity about the topic of socialism, whether because of the current political context or for more personal reasons, like creating “human connections.”
Sophie M. Lavoie is a member of the NB Media Co-op’s editorial board.
Disclosure: Susan O’Donnell is a member of the board of directors of the NB Media Co-op.
