The Connexions Archive & Library
The Connexions Archive & Library is a people’s history project dedicated to keeping alive the rich history of grassroots movements for social justice. We are looking forward to celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2025.
Connexions preserves ‘alternative’ histories that rarely appear in the mainstream record, and makes them available online to a wide public, as well as in physical form to researchers and scholars.
Established in 1975, the Connexions Archive preserves and publishes materials spanning more than 50 years of grassroots organizing and activism.
The Connexions Archive is located on at 200 Wolverleigh Blvd in Toronto. Archive hours are limited; if you wish to visit, please contact us via the information on our contact form.
Highlights from the Connexions Archive
Archives from the Connexions Website
Manifestos, Programs and Visions
Connexions features an extensive collection of radical and left-wing political manifestos, political programs, and vision statements. The earliest items in the collection are the 1649 declaration by the English radicals known as the Levellers, An Agreement of the Free People of England, and Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet Common Sense, a passionate and eloquent justification of revolution against tyranny. Among the more than 50 documents included are the Communist Manifesto, the manifesto of the Paris Commune, the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, the 1933 Regina Manifesto of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the 1969 Waffle Manifesto, the African National Congress’ Freedom Charter, and the 2015 Leap Manifesto.
Seeds of Fire
A People’s Chronology. Recalling events that happened on this day in history. Memories of struggle, resistance and persistence. More than 1500 items spanning more than 2500 years of history and encompassing every day of the year.
Connexipedia
Connexipedia is an alternative encyclopedia covering the history of movements for social justice and the people in them.
Connexions Quotations
A selection of quotations about social change, resistance, politics, and a wide range of other topics.
Connexions Calendar Past Events
The Connexions Calendar is an event calendar covering a wide diversity of events of interest to activists, organizers, and people concerned with social justice, in Canada and abroad. The Calendar has been running on the Connexions website for more than a decade, so you can also use the Past Events index to look up information about past events.
Important Archives of Publications and Materials
The Connexions Digest
The Connexions Digest was a print publication published by Connexions from early 1976 to 1992 (with some variations of the title of the publication). It was created to connect people working for social justice with resources, ideas, events, organizations, and each other. All 55 print issues have been digitized and are available online, as are many of the more than 4,000 publications and resources abstracted in the Connexions Digest.
Other Voices - The Connexions Newsletter
Other Voices is the free emailed newsletter published by Connexions. It features new and recent articles, books, and films, as well as archival content from the Connexions website and from other progressive websites. Regular features include a selection of new articles, news about grassroots archives and people’s history internationally, website of the week, book of the week, film of the week, quote of the week, and other news and resources. All past issues of Other Voices are available on the Connexions website here.
Traces of Magma
An Annotated Bibliography of Left Literature by Rolf Knight.
Traces of Magma is a 356-page annotated bibliography of left wing novels which deal with the lives of working people during the twentieth century. It includes some collections of poetry, drama and stories as well as a smattering of non-fictional material such as oral history, but primarily it is a compendium of novels.
It provides brief synopses of more than 3,000 titles originally in some 50 languages by circa 1,500 authors from over 90 countries.
Seven News
7 News was a non-profit community-owned newspaper published in Toronto, in the area east of downtown (known as ‘Ward 7’), in the 1970s and 1980s. All issues published from 1970 through 1985 have been digitized and are available online, along with a large collection of explanatory materials. Digitzation of this material was supported by a grant from Library and Archives Canada's Documentary Heritage Communities Program.
The Red Menace
The Red Menace was published by the Toronto-based Toronto Liberation School (later the Libertarian Socialist Collective) between 1976 and 1980.
The collective publishing The Red Menace described its political orientation as follows: “We want to overthrow the capitalist system and build a new world in which freedom and creativity can flourish, a world in which people are in control, in which they run things democratically and collectively. A libertarian socialist world.”
The Medical Reform Group Newsletter
The Medical Reform Group of Ontario (MRG) was formed in 1978 by a small group of doctors who were concerned that there was no voice for progressive, socially-conscious physicians in Canada. The organization disbanded in 2014. Many of the newsletters produced by the MRG have been digitized and are available on the Connexions website.
Content Magazine
Content magazine was a Canadian journalism criticism magazine
published from the 1970s to the 1990s. Most of the issues of the magazine have been digitized and are available on the Connexions website.
Canadian News Synthesis Project
Synthesis, the publication produced by the Canadian News Synthesis Project was published through most of the 1970s, with the last issue appearing in 1980. CNSP's voluntary, non-profit collective worked to synthesize the most important economic, political and cultural forces in Canadian society, using eleven major newspapers from across the country. Each issue presented current news coverage and was organized to show the major trends in Canada and Latin America.
Toronto Grassroots Community Group Histories
Publications, histories, and background articles compiled as part of a project, funded by the Documentary Heritage Communities Program of Library & Archives Canada, to digitize and preserve the histories and periodicals of community organizations and activist groups in Toronto from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Sources Download Page
Download PDF versions of directories, sourcebooks, reference books, and other documents produced by SOURCES.
External Archives
Connexions incorporates materials and links from many other grassroots, radical, and alternative archives.
Below are links to some of these archives and people’s history projects. Even more archives can be found on this page.
Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), almost 40,000 men and women from 52 countries, including 2,800 Americans, volunteered to go to Spain and join the International Brigades to help fight fascism. The U.S. volunteers came to be known collectively as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. ALBA works to preserve the legacy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
Alternative Toronto
A community archive and historical map of Toronto’s alternative cultures, scenes and spaces of the 1980s and early 1990s.
ArQuives
mandate is to: Acquire, preserve, organize, and give public access to information and materials in any medium, by and about LGBTQ2+ people, primarily produced in or concerning Canada.
Bracero History Archive
The Bracero History Archive collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural workers crossed the border under the program to work in the United States.
Black Liberation and Civil Rights in the U.S. (1800s)
Documents relating specifically to information on the Black Panther Party and their revolutionary struggle to overturn the U.S. system of racial and working class oppression, as well as the Civil Rights Movement; and the many analyses by Marxist organization on the "Black Question".
The Diggers Archive
The Diggers emerged in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s. The Digger Archives is an ongoing Web project to preserve and present the history of this group.
Docs Populi
Dedicated to documenting and publishing oppositional artwork of the late 20th century.
Emma Goldman Papers
Documents of the anarchist Emma Goldman. Goldman was an early advocate of free speech, birth control, women's equality and independence, and union organization. Her criticism of mandatory conscription of young men into the military during World War I led to a two-year imprisonment, followed by her deportation in 1919. For the rest of her life until her death in 1940, she continued to participate in the social and political movements of her age, from the Russian Revolution to the Spanish Civil War.
Free Speech Movement Archives
Documenting the history of the 1960s Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, California.
The Freedom Archives
Materials from the late-60s to the mid-90s chronicling the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international solidarity movements.
Harvey Richards Media Archive
The Harvey Richards Media Archive contains a treasure of images of the political and social upheavals of the 1960s on the west coast of the United States and of the devastating impact of capitalist resource exploitation in western forests, among other subjects.
History Archive of the German Revolution 1918-1923
A history archive dedicated to the documentation, analysis and interpretation of the events surrounding the German workers revolutions of 1918 through 1923.
History from Below
International network of historian-activists, artists and agitators.
H.K. Yuen Social Movement Archive
The H.K. Yuen collection is a unique archive of primary materials on social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The collection includes materials on a wide range of movements internationally, with a focus on Berkeley, Oakland, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The collection features multimedia primary documents from the Free Speech Movement, the Third World College mobilizations, the United Farm Workers, the student strike at San Francisco State University, the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, the International Hotel Mobilizations, Stop the Draft Week, the Women’s Movement, and many more.
I.F. Stone Archive
An archive of I.F. Stone’s Weekly, the newsletter published by I.F. Stone from 1953 to 1971. All issues between January 17, 1953 and December 1, 1971 are online.
Interference Archive
Objects created as part of U.S. social movements: posters, flyers, publications, photographs, moving images, audio recordings, and other printed matter.
International Institute of Social History
Maintains a collection, conducts research and offers a range of services in the field of national and international social history in general and labour history in particular.
International Institute of Social History
Maintains a collection, conducts research and offers a range of services in the field of national and international social history in general and labour history in particular.
Israeli Left Archive
Devoted mainly to the radical left and the women’s peace movement in Israel during the sixties, seventies and the eighties.
Joseph A. Labadie Collection
Radical history collection (U.S.)
Kate Sharpley Library
Anarchist history collection. (U.S.)
Ken Knabb Archive
A large collection of documents from the international Situationist movement and related movements. Finding Aid
The Koori History Website Project
Information on Black Australia's 240 year struggle for justice.
Labor Film Database
Over 1,700 films and videos are listed here, searchable by title, director, actors and/or keywords.
Libcom
Extensive archive of libertarian socialist and anarchist documents.
Mapping the Underground/Alternative Press
1965-1975
These interactive maps below more than 1,500 underground, alternative, and other kinds of unorthodox publications from the decade between 1965 and 1975.
Marx & Engels papers
The original papers of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, World Classics, are digitized and now online accessible. The papers can be consulted from anywhere and by anyone who logs into the catalogue website of the International Institute of Social History. Access is open and free.
Marxism and Workers' Organization
Writings of Marxists on Trade Unions, the General Strike, Soviets and Working Class Organisation.
Marxists Internet Archive
Large serchable archive of the writings of Marx and Engels and of others in the Marxist tradition.
MayDay Rooms Archive
A collectively run archive of historical materials which focuses on social struggles, radical art, and acts of resistance from the 1960s to the present: it contains everything from recent feminist poetry to 1990s techno paraphernalia, from situationist magazines to histories of riots and industrial transformations, from 1970s educational experiments to prison writing.
Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Radio Broadcasts - Archive
An archive of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s radio essays and commentaries. Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist and political prisoner who chronicles the human condition.
Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory
Working to locate, document, digitise, and provide access to all archival materials related to Nelson Mandela.
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives
The largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world. (U.S.)
Pacifica Radio Archives
The Pacifica Radio Archives appraise, collect, organize, describe, and preserve the creative work generated by or produced in association with Pacifica Radio, and we make it available for research and reference use. Chronicling the political, cultural and artistic movements of the second half of the 20th century, Pacifica radio programs include documentaries, performances, discussions, debates, drama, poetry readings, commentaries and radio arts.
The Palestine Poster Project Archive
An online collection of thousands of posters from, or related to, Palestine. A source of information about the villages and cities that were ethnically cleansed, looted, and destroyed by the Israeli army.
Palestine Remembered
Created to preserve the memories and the experiences of the Palestinian people around the world, especially the 726,000 Palestinians refugees who were ethnically cleansed from their homes, farms, and businesses as a result of the 1948 war.
Prometheus Research Library
A working library of American and international Marxist history, documentation, and related interests, maintained by the Trotskyist League.
Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto
The Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto is dedicated to ensuring that the rich history of people who have experienced the psychiatric system is preserved for our community and the wider community as a resource from which everyone can share and learn.
People’s Archive of Rural India
Project on rural India consisting of an archive which depicts its diverse and complex countryside.
Raya Dunayevskaya Collection
The writings of the Marxist-Humanist writer Raya Dunayevskaya.
Reading from the Left
A project to promote socialist pamphlets and books from a wide range of publishers. All of the pamphlets and book chapters posted can be downloaded without charge and without registering.
Rise Up Feminist Archive
A digital archive of feminist activism in Canada from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Sinistra
Online Archives of the Communist Left.
Slave Narratives
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP).
Socialist History Project
An Online Archive of Canadian socialist history and thought.
Sojourner Truth Organization Electronic Archive
The Sojourner Truth Organization was an American revolutionary group based largely in Chicago during the 1970s and 1980s. This archive serves as a resource for STO’s newspapers (Insurgent Worker), pamphlets, shop leaflets, theoretical journals (Urgent Tasks, Tendency Newsletter), collaborative works (Collective Works), and others.
Sources Bookshelf
The Sources Bookshelf features books on a range of topics, with particular emphasis on books related to journalism, media, censorship, public relations, and research. It also features a careful selection of high-quality reference books and in-depth expert investigations on a variety of current topics.
Sources News Release Archive
An archive of all news releases posted on the Sources.com website.
South Sudan: Remembering the Ones We Lost
Remembering The Ones We Lost is a public memorial that aims to name all victims of conflict and armed violence in South Sudan. This unified and public recognition of individual lives being lost through violence is accomplished through the collective efforts of individuals, communities and institutions to name victims. This initiative hopes to bring attention to the shared suffering, give additional meaning to cries for peace and be a tool for understanding and reconciliation amongst South Sudanese individuals and communities.
Spunk Library
The Spunk Library was an effort from 1992 to ~2000 to collect and distribute Libertarian Socialist material in electronic form. It is now archived on Connexions.org.
The Studs Terkel Radio Archive
Over the course of his 45 years on WFMT radio, Studs Terkel discussed every aspect of 20th-century life with movers, shakers, artists, celebrities, and working folks. From civil rights to labor to jazz, his work spanned an impressive array of topics and figures. These enchanting, historically-significant interviews are now being made available online.
Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Collections relating to labour and social history; the history of the Left, the place of the worker in American society, the evolution of labour law, women’s history, immigrant history, and more. (U.S.)
Texas Archives of Autonomist Marxism
These archives contain a wide variety of material related to those threads of the Marxist tradition which have emphasized the self-activity of the working class. “Autonomist” is used here in several senses: 1. the autonomy of the working class vis a vis capital, 2. the autonomy of workers vis a vis their official organizations, e.g., trade unions or parties, 3. the autonomy of various sectors of the class from each other, e.g., that of blacks from whites, women from men, etc.
Toronto Workers History Project
A group of workers, unionists, professors, students, artists, teachers, librarians, educators, researchers, community activists, and retirees dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the history of working people in Toronto.
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
Extensive collection of official human rights documents such as UN treaties.
U.S.A Radical, Leftist & Marxist Journals
Focuses primarily on Leftist and Marxist publications and periodicals. The largest collection of online American communist, socialist and left journals & publications in the world. Containing thousands of issues of these newspapers and magazines it represents the documentary history of the U.S. Left in high resolution PDFs.
Women and Marxism
This archive contains more than 70 authors writing about both women’s issues and Marxism. The classic texts are most heavily represented.
Zochrot
Zochrot (“Remembering”) seeks to raise public awareness of the Palestinian Nakba, especially among Jews in Israel, who bear a special responsibility to remember and amend the legacy of 1948.
Periodicals
Against the Current
Against the Current is the bi-monthly analytical journal published
by Solidarity, an independent socialist organization dedicated to
forming a broad regrouping of the U.S. left. The journal presents
varying points of view on a wide variety of issues. As such, debates
are frequent and informative, with the goal of promoting discussion
among activists, organizers, and scholars on the Left.
The Connexions Digest
The Connexions Digest was a print publication published by Connexions from early 1976 to 1992 (with some variations of the title of the publication). It was created to connect people working for social justice with resources, ideas, events, organizations, and each other. All 55 print issues have been digitized and are available online, as are many of the more than 4,000 publications and resources abstracted in the Connexions Digest.
Content Magazine
Content magazine was a Canadian journalism criticism magazine published from the 1970s to the 1990s. Most of the issues of the magazine have been digitized and are available on the Connexions website.
Cultural Correspondence
A digital edition of Cultural Correspondence, a critical review of popular culture, born from the collapse of the New Left and hopes for a new beginning of a social movement, intermittently published in Providence from 1975 to 1985.
The Fourth Estate
Progressive newspaper published in Nova Scotia from 1969 to 1977.
GRASP
Published by the Black United Front of Nova Scotia from 1970 to 1976.
Green Left Weekly
An independent Australian publication and Web site committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality, providing local, national and international news, analysis, and discussion and debate to strengthen the anti-capitalist movements. Issues from 1991 on have been archived online.
Guerilla
Guerilla was a counter-culture newspaper published in Toronto in the 1970s.
Harbinger (Institute for Social Ecology)
A journal published by the Institute for Social Ecology. Some back issues are available online.
IFEX - International Freedom of Expression Exchange
The IFEX network of organisations is based on a shared commitment to defend and promote freedom of expression as a fundamental human right. An archive of IFEX member statements and campaigns from 1995 on is available online.
In These Times
In These Times is an independent, nonprofit American magazine founded in 1976. It is "dedicated to advancing democracy and economic justice, informing movements for a more humane world, and providing an accessible forum for debate about the policies that shape our future." In These Times appears both in print and online. Issues from 2001 on are partially archived online.
Insurgent Notes
A journal of communist theory and practice. Quoting Marx and Engels, the editors of Insurgent Notes reiterate that "Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence.)" All articles from past issues are archived online.
International Socialist Review
International Socialist Review ceased publication in 1979. An archive of articles is online on the isreview.org website.
Journal on Religion, Conflict, Peace
The Journal, a publication of Plowshares, addresses both the problem of religion and conflict and the possibility and practices of peace, giving particular attention to peace. Articles address everything from interpersonal relationships to international politics. Past issues from 2007 on are archived online.
Labour / Le Travail
Labour/Le Travail is the official, semi-annual publication of the Canadian Committee on Labour History. Since it began publishing in 1976, it has carried many important articles in the field of working-class history, industrial sociology, labour economics, and labour relations. Although primarily interested in a historical perspective on Canadian workers, the journal is interdisciplinary in scope.
Left Green Perspectives
Left Green Perspectives was published between 1986 and 2000. Topics included social ecology, radical ecology, nonviolence, radical politics, libertarian municipalism, the New Right, and communalism.
Left History
Established in 1993, Left History is a refereed bi-annual scholarly journal run out of York University. With an editorial board of prominent left historians, Left History features articles from a variety of theoretical approaches by both established and new scholars. Issues of Left History regularly include deliberations on topics such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, culture, the state, labour, the environment, theory, and method.
Medialens
MediaLens is a response based on the editors' conviction that mainstream newspapers and broadcasters provide a profoundly distorted picture of our world. It describes its goal as "Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media." They write that "We are convinced that the increasingly centralised, corporate nature of the media means that it acts as a de facto propaganda system for corporate and other establishment interests. The costs incurred as a result of this propaganda, in terms of human suffering and environmental degradation, are incalculable." Media Lens articles and alerts from 2001 on are archived online.
Medical Reform Group Newsletter
The Medical Reform Group of Ontario (MRG) was formed in 1978 by a small group of doctors who were concerned that there was no voice for progressive, socially-conscious physicians in Canada. The organization disbanded in 2012. Most of the newsletters produced by the MRG have been digitized and are available on the Connexions website.
Neue Rheinische Zeitung
The newspaper edited by Karl Marx from June 1848 to May 1849.
New Internationalist
New Internationalist has been reporting on issues of world poverty and inequality since 1973. It aims to "focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide in the fight for global justice."
News and Letters
Published by the News and Letters Committees, a Marxist-Humanist organization, since 1955. It was created "so that the voices of revolt from below could be heard unseparated from the articulation of a philosophy of liberation." It stands for the abolition of capitalism, whether in its private property or state property form.
Our Generation
Our Generation was a left-wing magazine published in Montreal from the 1960s to the 1980s. Many of the issues published are available as PDFs. Originally called "Our Generation Against War," it grew out of the 1960s peace movement in Canada and from there expanded to a wider range of issues. The editorial slant of Our Generation was anarchist/libertarian socialist.
Other Voices - The Connexions Newsletter
Other Voices is the free emailed newsletter published by Connexions. It features new and recent articles, books, and films, as well as archival content from the Connexions website and from other progressive websites. Regular features include a selection of new articles, news about grassroots archives and people’s history internationally, website of the week, book of the week, film of the week, quote of the week, and other news and resources. All past issues of Other Voices are available on the Connexions website here.
THE RAP
Published by the Black United Front of Nova Scotia in the mid-1980s.
The Red Menace
The Red Menace was published by the Toronto-based Toronto Liberation School (later the Libertarian Socialist Collective) between 1976 and 1980.
The collective publishing The Red Menace described its political orientation as follows: “We want to overthrow the capitalist system and build a new world in which freedom and creativity can flourish, a world in which people are in control, in which they run things democratically and collectively. A libertarian socialist world.”
Root & Branch: A Libertarian Socialist Journal
A partial archive of the 1970s libertarian socialist publication. Topics covered in Root & Branch included the political economy of capitalism, workers' struggles and the labour movement, anti-capitalist ecology movements, and the theory and practice of Marxism and libertarian socialism.
Seven News
7 News was a non-profit community-owned newspaper published in Toronto, in the area east of downtown (known as ‘Ward 7’), in the 1970s and 1980s. All issues published from 1970 through 1985 have been digitized and are available online, along with a large collection of explanatory materials. Digitzation of this material was supported by a grant from Library and Archives Canada’s Documentary Heritage Communities Program.
Socialist Register
Socialist Register is an annual survey of movements and ideas published yearly since 1964. It is committed to developing an independent relation to Marxism, free from sectarian and dogmatic positions. Most of the articles published in each annual book-length volume are longer essays written by academics.
Synthesis - Canadian News Synthesis Project
Synthesis, the publication produced by the Canadian News Synthesis Project was published through most of the 1970s, with the last issue appearing in 1980. CNSP's voluntary, non-profit collective worked to synthesize the most important economic, political and cultural forces in Canadian society, using eleven major newspapers from across the country. Each issue presented current news coverage and was organized to show the major trends in Canada and Latin America.
Toronto Citizen
A community newspaper published in the 1970s covering Toronto city politics and urban issues.
Toronto Clarion
A progressive Toronto newspaper published from 1976 to the mid-1980s.
Smaller Archives of Publications and Materials
Alternate Society
Alternate Society was a (more-or-less) monthly publication published in Southern Ontario, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It combined a counter-culture orientation with radical political views. A few issues have been digitized; more print issues are available in the Connexions Archive.
Alternative to Alienation
Alternative to Alienation was a bi-monthly periodical published in Toronto in the 1970s. It was especially concerned with alternative ways of living and learning that would not reproduce the alienation of capitalist society. A few issues have been digitized; more print issues are available in the Connexions Archive.
Antinomy
Antinomy was a free bi-weekly newspaper published by and for high school and university students in Toronto in the summer of 1971.
BiMonthly Reports
BiMonthly Reports was a Toronto-based newsletter focused on the real estate, development, and finance industry from 1977 through 1982.
Canadians Concerned About South Africa Newsletter
Newsletter of an anti-apartheid organization active in the 1980s.
Community Economics
A newsletter published in the 1990s promoting community economic development, community partnerships, co-operatives, and the economics of sharing.
The Critical List
A magazine, published in the 1970s, about the health, health care, and the medical profession in Canada.
Harbinger
Harbinger was an 'underground newspaper' published in Toronto from 1968 to 1972.
L’Hebdo (University of Toronto)
L’Hebdo was a weekly political and cultural supplement to The Varsity student newspaper at the University of Toronto published in 1972-1973.
Issues & Actions
Issues & Actions was published in Toronto by the Community Forum on Shared Responsibility. It described itself as “a newspaper linking people for social change” and featured articles on housing, unemployment, and social justice action.
Network
A newsletter sharing information and analysis among and about radical movements.
New Maritimes
New Maritimes was an independent monthly newsmagazine covering political, cultural, and economic issues in the Maritimes from a "no-holds-barred point of view." Supported by unions, church, and community groups across the region, New Maritimes asked "tough questions, offers hard-hitting commentary and reflects much of the real vitality of life" in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.
The Newsletter [New Tendency]
“The Newsletter” was published in 1973 and 1974 by the New Tendency, a loose collaboration of independent leftists primarily based in Toronto, Windsor, Winnipeg, and Kitchener-Waterloo. Articles dealt with workplace issues, labour unions, workers autonomy and related topics. A total of five-and-a-half issues were published.
Reform Metro
Newsletter of the Movement for Municipal Reform in Toronto, published from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s.
Rikka
Quarterly magazine focusing on multiculturalism, racism, civil liberties, and policing, with special emphasis on the Japanese-Canadian community. Edited by George Yamada, and published first from Toronto, and then from Manitoulin Island. Three issues have been digitized by Connexions.
Solidaire
Solidaire was a magazine published in the 1970s by a group of English-speaking Quebecois to inform Anglophones in Quebec and progressive people in Canada and the U.S. of the growing struggle for independence and socialism in Quebec.
Switchboard
Switchboard was a weekly newsletter published in Toronto in the 1980s by Community Switchboard, offering a forum for those interested in social change. Community Switchboard maintained an office in Toronto to provide research facilities to its public.
Toronto Disarmament Networker
The Toronto Disarmament Network was a coalition of about 70 groups supporting disarmament. These issues are from 1984 and 1985.
Transformation Magazine
A magazine on the theory and practice of social change. Four issue were published in 1971 and 1972. Copies of all issues are in the Connexions Archive.
True North
Billed as the “Voice of Canadian independence,” True North was published on an occasional basis by Citizens Concerned About Free Trade in the 1990s.
Up From The Ashes
A occasional journal for the Self-Education of Revolutionary Activists published in the 1980s.
Waffle News
Newsletter of the Waffle movement, published in the early 1970s.
Worker Co-ops
Independent quarterly magazine dedicated to worker co-operatives.
Workers Solidarity
A newsletter published by the Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA).
The Yellow Journal
An independent non-profit newspaper for the people of Metropolitan Toronto funded by the Opportunities for Youth Program in 1974. The newspaper was a fortnightly review of the quality and accuracy of the local press.
Selective List of other Periodicals in Connexions Archive:
Action Day Care Newsletter – Newsletter covering the movement for daycare.
The Activist – Newspaper of the ACT for Disarmament, a coalition of groups and individuals protesting Canadian participation in the arms race.
Akwesasne Notes – Publication of the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne.
The Badger – Occasional newspaper for progressive politics in Toronto urban government.
Beyond Monogamy – Dedicated to exploring and facilitating alternatives to traditional monogamous relationships.
Black Labour – Organ of the Black Workers Alliance. 1975.
The Body Politic – Rick Bébout writes on the origins and history of The Body Politic, a pioneering gay newspaper published from 1971-1987.
Briarpatch – Left-wing Saskatchewan magazine. Website at briarpatchmagazine.com/
Broadside – Women’s liberation newspaper published from 1979 to 1989.
Canadian Dimension – Left-wing Canadian magazine published in Winnipeg from the 1960s on. Website at canadiandimension.com//
Canadian Labour – Newspaper of the Canadian Labour Congress.
Canadian Liberation Movement newsletter – Internal newsletter published in the 1960s and 1970s by the Canadian Liberation movement.
Canadian Tribune – Newspaper of the Communist Party of Canada.
C.A.S.N.P Bulletin – Publication of the Canadian Association in Support of Native Peoples.
Catholic New Times – Progressive Catholic newspaper.
City Hall – City Hall was a bi-weekly newsletter written by Toronto aldermen David Crombie, Karl Jaffary, William Kilbourn, and John Sewell in the early 1970s.
Clothed with the Sun – Magazine devoted to the naturist movement.
Downtown Action – Downtown Action was a project concerned with tenants’ issues and the role of the property industry in Toronto. Two issues of the newsletter from 1976 and 1977 are currently available online.
The Eye – Published by Friends of Pioneering Israel.
Fifth Estate – Anarchist newspaper published out of Detroit. Website at www.fifthestate.org/
Flux – A magazine of libertarian socialism.
Future History – A Resource Journal for Men Against Sexism.
Gay Left – A socialist journal published by gay men.
Gay Rising – Published for the gay community by Toronto Gay Alliance Towards Equality.
Healthsharing – Womens’ health magazine.
Industrial Worker – Publication of the Industrial Workers of the World.Kensington Market Drum – Newspaper published in Kensington Market.
Kick It Over – Anarchist magazine.
Last Post – Left-wing Canadian news magazine published from 1969 to 1980.
Liberation – Radical left magazine published out of New York from 1956 to 1977.
Loving More – Newsletter concerned with group marriage.
Metro Network for Social Justice newsletter – MNSJ was a non-profit network of organizations committed to promoting social and economic justice in Toronto
The Militant – Newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party in the U.S.
Mudpie – Magazine about schools and education.
Mutual Aid – A publication of the Toronto Mutual Aid Community.
N: Nude & Natural – Naturist magazine. Website at naturistsociety.com/about-n-magazine/
New Breed – Metis publication published by the Gabriel Dumont Institute. External archive at www.metismuseum.ca
News from Guatemala – Newsletter supporting popular struggles in Guatemala.
Next Year Country – Radical Saskatchewan magazine.
Nexus – Billed as a magazine of land, corporate, and community affairs. Two issues from 1978-1979 are currently available.
Open Road – Anarchist newspaper.
Other Voices – Connexions newsletter, 2014 -
The Other Woman – Women’s liberation newspaper published in Toronto in the 1970s. External archive at riseupfeministarchive.ca/publications/other-woman-a-revolutionary-feminist-newspaper-toronto/
Our Schools, Our Selves – Education journal/magazine.
Outlook/Canadian Jewish Outlook – Progressive Canadian Jewish magazine.
Peace Magazine – Coverage of peace and international issues.
Phoenix Rising – Phoenix Rising: The Voice of the Psychiatrized was published from 1980 to 1990. An annotated index of back issues is available on the Psychiatric Survivors Archive website.
Radical America – A journal of U.S. radicalism.
Radical Digressions – Blog of Connexions Co-ordinator Ulli Diemer
Regent Park Community News – Newsletter/newspaper published in the 1970s in the Regent Park neighbourhood of Toronto.
Root & Branch – A libertarian Marxist journal.
Socialist Studies Bulletin – Publication of the Society for Socialist Studies.
This Magazine is About Schools – A magazine about schools and education, This Magazine is About Schools was founded in 1966 and continued under that name until 1973, when the name was changed to “This Magazine”“THIS”).
Tightwire – Newsletter published by women in the Prison for Women in Kingston.
Towards Justice in Health – Published by Nurses for Social Responsibility.
Waffle News – Published by the Waffle group.
Workers’ Vanguard – Newspaper of Spartacist League. External archive at https://www.icl-fi.org/
Additional Resources
- Selected Archive Projects
- People's History, Memory, & Archives Gateway
- Radical and Left History Gateway
- Oral History & Memoirs Gateway
- History Gateway
- The Case for Grassroots Archives
- Archives & People's History News
- Histories of Toronto Grassroots Groups
- Glimpses of the Connexions Archive
- Collective Memory and Cultural Amnesia
- Collective Memory, Archives, and the Connexions Project
- Is that an archive in your basement... or are you just hoarding?
- Activist Archiving in Toronto
- Bequests: Leaving a social justice legacy
- Connexions Subject Index
- Connexions Search
- Connexions Library Title Index
- Connexions Library Author Index
- Archive Title Index
- Archive Chronological Index
- Archive Author Index
- Archives/National
- Book Burning
- Book Preservation
- Canadian History
- Cultural Preservation
- Destruction of Libraries and Archives
- Digital Archiving
- Digital Libraries
- Heritage Conservation
- Historical Records
- History
- History/Archives
- History of Political Thought
- Illustration Archives
- Immigrant History
- Information Destruction
- Labour History
- Left History
- Libraries/Archives
- Local History
- Memory
- Online Archives
- Oral History
- People’s History
- Preservation
- Women’s History
- Workers’ History
Connexions is:
- A resource to help the activists, organizers, and scholars of today and tomorrow connect with and learn from the lives, the work, the writings, and the experiences of prior generations of grassroots activists.
- A physical archive comprising tens of thousands of documents, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, posters, brochures, leaflets, books, newspaper clippings, buttons, postcards, audio recordings and other materials.
- An ever-expanding digital archive with more than 20,000 documents and images already available online, and more being added continually.
- The Connexions Archive is an extremely active “working archive” where volunteers and interns from around the world work together to digitize, abstract, index, and translate materials and make them available online.
- The Connexions website makes materials available to a wide national and international public. The carefully designed multi-level indexing system gives users and activists, students, scholars, and the general public, deeper and more relevant search results when they search for information, ideas, and sources. The website records more than 500,000 page views a month, and continues to grow.
We are an all-volunteer project dependent on donations from supporters. If you’d like to make a one-time or monthly donation, or if you’d like to consider leaving a bequest to support Connexions’ work, please see here for more information.
Connexions gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Documentary Heritage Communities Program of Library and Archives Canada in supporting projects to digitize documentary materials and make them available online.
Wikipedia: Connexions Information Sharing Services
The English, French, Spanish, and German versions of Wikipedia all have articles about Connexions, and in addition translations are now also available online in Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Farsi, Filipino, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese.
Connexions Mandate
Connexions exists to support individuals and groups working for freedom and social justice. We work to maintain and make available a record of the theory and practice of people struggling against injustice and for social change. We believe that the more we know about the struggles, victories, and defeats of the past, and about those who took part in them, the better we will be to bring a new world into being.
Connexions maintains a physical archive/library of books and documents, and is engaged in an ongoing project to build and expand an indexed digital archive of documents. We try to feature a wide variety of resources reflecting a diversity of viewpoints and approaches to social change within our overall mandate of support for democracy, civil liberties, freedom of expression, universal human rights, secularism, equality, economic justice, environmental responsibility, and the creation and preservation of community.
We are international in our orientation, but as a Canadian-based project we feature an especially extensive collection of Canadian documents and profiles of Canadian activist organizations.
Statement of Values
We believe...
- In the value of preserving the histories of grassroots movements for social justice and making them accessible to new generations.
- In the importance of keeping alive the memories, experiences, strategies, successes, failures, and visions of those who have worked for social justice over the years so future generations can learn from them and be inspired by them.
- In the tradition of “history from below” – people’s history – working to keep alive memories of resistance in the face of a political culture that insists there are no alternatives to the way things are, and that “resistance is futile”.
- In the importance of diversity and pluralism, of recording and making available a wide range of approaches to social change and social justice. We aim, as best we can, to feature resources reflecting a variety of viewpoints and alternative approaches to social justice.
- In the value of knowing our history, of knowing that people have been working at the grassroots for a better world for many decades and of learning about the problems they faced and how they tried to deal with them.
- In the value of passing on the experience and knowledge of elders, and of people who have passed on, to the activists of today and tomorrow. These are threads of wisdom and experience that can be woven into the tapestries of our movements for change.
- In the importance of sharing information as well as preserving it. Our goal is to make the contents of the archive available as widely as possible, in a variety of formats and languages.
- In connecting people in different places. For people to act locally and think globally, it helps to know what people in other places are facing and how they are trying to bring about change.
- In the values of democracy, civil liberties, freedom of speech, universal human rights, secularism, equality, economic justice, ecology, and the creation and preservation of community, which we seek to support through the Connexions Archive.
A note on the collection
The Connexions project has been collecting and sharing information and resources since 1975. The Connexions Archive, currently located on the University of Toronto campus, contains more than 100,000 periodicals, books, pamphlets, leaflets, posters, buttons and miscellaneous ephemera of various kinds. Much of the collection, but not all, has been catalogued and indexed; a smaller proportion has been digitized. The Connexions website holds more than 325,000 files. Some are digital versions of physical documents in the Connexions Archive, but many are digital-only.
Connexions’ mandate is to inform and encourage individuals and groups working for freedom and social justice. We believe that this requires including a wide diversity of viewpoints, including views that members of the Connexions team do not personally agree with. We believe that in order to present alternative views effectively, we must understand and engage with ideas we are criticizing. We believe that criticism and debate are essential. We support freedom of speech and critical analysis; we oppose suppression and censorship.
Connexions is open to donations of materials that fit our mandate (see above). Our primary interest is materials relating to grassroots organizations and activism in Canada. Where a collection does not seem to be a good fit for Connexions, we may be able to suggest other archives that might be interested. Contact us via the contact page.
What others have said about Connexions
Within the broader realm of archives, Connexions fills a unique, indispensable and ultimately dynamic role – documenting Canadian grassroots movements for social and environmental justice. Because these movements tend to be ignored or misrepresented in the mainstream present, they can fade too easily and irretrievably into oblivion. Connexions ensures that their legacy – a vital part of our shared legacy – remains alive and accessible.”
- Michael Riordon, Author
The Connexions Archive [is] an extraordinarily rich collection of documents and other materials on the history of social activism in Canada... The Connexions Archive is such an important record of aspiration and intervention for social justice, with 'grey' materials that were rarely collected and catalogued by conventional libraries and have otherwise have vanished (or are rapidly disappearing as aging activists downsize!) that its value for our understanding of these efforts and their influence upon Canadian society is immeasurable.”
- Bruce Kidd, O.C., Ph.D., Professor, Faculty of Physical Education and Health, University of Toronto
The Connexions Archive is an invaluable collection of materials that provide insight about kinds of social activism and political commitment that are too often marginalized and misunderstood in the conventional scholarship of social movements with its bias toward more institutionalized politics. The emphasis of the archives [is] on a popular politics of education and mobilization ‘from below,’ and the ways this participatory politics has shaped Canadian society.”
- Don Wells, Director, School of Labour Studies, Professor, School of Labour Studies and Department of Political Science, McMaster University
I wish to support with all the enthusiasm I am capable of expressing the importance of the retention in the most secure manner possible, the materials included in Connexions Archives. There is information and commentary to be found that will not be contained in any other archive of which I am familiar. [I have spent the last few years in both provincial, national and university archives without which my understanding and ability to express my ‘take’ on the cultural history of the past 60 years would have been impossible. Any account of the past decades that ignored these materials can never provide a balanced record of what has transpired!.”
- Walter Pitman, former President, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute; former Dean of Arts and Science, Trent University; former director, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
Archives constitute our collective memory as Torontonians and are an invaluable aid to those who write our history – or produce new thinking on matters of current concern. Knowing, researching, celebrating collecting and uncovering our story is a critical piece to building our civic future. For these reasons I am an ardent supporter of the Connexions Archive. I have followed Connexions good work for over 30 years. It appeals to me because it is a volunteer community grassroots effort. It reveals the story of the community engagement of so many people working on issues of social justice. As such, Connexions is a vital part of the Toronto and Canadian story. It is also a live, ongoing operation with volunteers scanning, digitizing and indexing a wide variety of publications from across Canada that our larger publicly-funded archives are not, for whatever reasons, doing. The Connexions Archive soon must find new quarters, preferably in a college or university setting, for its volunteers and its materials. I want to commend it to any such institution, for support through space.”
- Joe Mihevc, Toronto City Councillor
I am writing in strong support of Connexions finding a permanent home with a partner institution or organization. When I was starting off doing my historical work on the emergence and development of the autonomous and independent left in Canada in the 1970s (especially the New Tendency) three years ago the Connexions Archive was an invaluable resource. It was from their site that I was first able to read the document produced by the Windsor Labour Collective called ?Our of the Drivers Seat? and also that I was able to obtain a copy of the full-run of the Newsletters of the New Tendency. This was crucial in providing the basis for me to continue this research which is still ongoing.”
- Gary Kinsman, Professor of Sociology, Laurentian University
I am writing to underline the importance of the Connexions Archives and the invaluable contribution the books, articles, electronic records can make to research and education in a wide range of fields. The Archives are multilingual, clearly and logically organized, and are a fount of the crucial information that is so necessary for understanding and addressing current critical problems. Particularly helpful to me has been the ample collection of past and present research which provides a necessary context for understanding where we are with climate change and many ecological and political crises.... The Archives offer exceptional breadth and ease of access to information and would be an invaluable addition to the university community.”
- Judith Deutsch, President, Science for Peace
I strongly support the creation of a proper archives for Connexions documents. The history that your material embodies will be vital to researchers as they explore the development of Canada. This was a dynamic period of change in the country and the world. Many of the non-profit organizations that now play major roles were formed or transformed in that period. Others, sadly, no longer exist but were no less influential. This clearly would be a valuable resource. The institution that houses it will become a central focus of a range of scholars and supporters. As the baby boom generation ages, this will become even more important. Although I cannot speak officially on behalf of Humber College, my personal opinion as a professor, a program head, an author, and a consultant with 35 years of experience in the non-profit sector leaves me no doubt this is worthwhile.”
- Professor Ken Wyman, CFRE, Coordinator, Postgraduate Fundraising & Volunteer Management Program, Humber College - Lakeshore Campus
The positive value of the Connexions Archive should, I hope, be immediately obvious to any thinking citizen. Santayana’s assertion that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is just one pearl of wisdom that highlights the priceless value of this particular archive. Historians, today and in the future, will find first-hand data here. A better society will surely be built on the shaky remnants of the current one. A significant store of the information, strategies, insights and wisdom needed to fashion that new future can be found in these archives.”
- Barrie Zwicker, Author
As a print, radio and TV journalist, and author over the past 30 years, I frequently accessed the very valuable Connexions website when conducting research. I was able to obtain information concerning the background and history of social movements and related activities in Canada that were not available anywhere else. Should Connexions not be able to continue to do its important work, it would be a serious loss to the country.”
Nick Fillmore, Journalist, former president Canadian Association of Journalists
I just want to thank you and the people at Connexions Archive for the services you provide me recently. Prior to this, I had consulted a number of libraries (the National Archives, the Fisher Rare Books Library and the Toronto Reference Library among others) in vain trying to locate issues of 7 News, the Ward Seven community newspaper, for a research project on poet Patrice Desbiens. The fact the Connexions Archive had a complete collection was invaluable and allowed me to uncover five original and unreleased poems Desbiens contributed very early in his career while he lived in Toronto in the late 70's.”
- Jean Marc Lariviere, Filmmaker
I am writing to endorse your efforts to find a space that will allow you to continue your valuable work of building a reference library of existing and future social justice materials. A grassroots library/archive is a valuable project.”
- David Walsh, Chair, Seeds of Hope Foundation
Because of its unique orientation as a forum for networking and information-sharing, Connexions is something of a crossroads, a meeting place. Central to Connexions’ vision is the belief that the real power for humanizing society rests with those who struggle at the bottom of society. Connexions strives to create the strength that comes from solidarity among those who work for justice.... There is in Connexions’ experience a hopefulness apparent from the imagination and dedication of those in every province and the territories who are standing up to and moving the immense weight of government and business.”
- Catalyst, Citizens for Public Justice
