Canada

One endorsement that flew under the radar came from the largest private sector union in North America, the United Steelworkers.

The union, with its 225,000 members, announced in December that it was throwing its weight behind Ashton, who is a dockworker and the national president of the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) in B.C.

Union members are already volunteering for Ashton's campaign, signing up members, organizing meet-and-greet events in local union halls and making phone calls.

It would be interesting to see if more unions join up Rob's campaign. That could be a big boost and offset Avi's funding lead. I won't be mad with either of them getting the leadership but I think I still prefer Rob.

Labour power - the ability to shutdown the machine that feeds the oligarchs as well as take the most of what workers produce - is the most fundamental and the strongest power we have for enacting significant change. It's the power that stops the shipments of weapons from Italy to Israel, without asking for a politician to turn against his defence donors. It's a power that can only be forcibly taken away at gunpoint. It's a power that's acquired without the consent of politicians or oligarchs. The way I see it, any campaign for systemic change needs to leverage labour power if it is to not be disrupted by the oligarch class. Oligarch-resistant political power is downstream from labour power.