Ottawa political circles must have heaved secret sighs of relief when Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh announced their confidence and supply agreement on March 21. In return for advancing some social spending priorities, the NDP will keep the minority government in power until
Continue readingAuthor: Radhika Desai
Canadian Dimension: The fate of capitalism hangs in the balance of international power
Dollar and yuan note. Photo from Shutterstock. This is the fifth in a seven-part, multi-week series of commentary on the COVID-19 crisis entitled WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A MANIFESTO FOR POLITICS AMID THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND by Radhika Desai, Professor of Political Studies and Director of the Geopolitical Economy
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Know Your Enemy: The Dangerous Futility of Pseudo-Philanthropic Neoliberalism
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been routinely accused of skewing aid priorities by promoting ‘corporate globalisation’, referred to here as sseudo-philanthropic neoliberalism. Image from Peripheral Thought. This is the fourth in a seven-part, multi-week series of commentary on the COVID-19 crisis entitled WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Political Hope in Search of an Agent
Karl-Marx-Monument in Chemnitz, Germany. Photo from Flickr. This is the third in a seven-part, multi-week series of commentary on the COVID-19 crisis entitled WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A MANIFESTO FOR POLITICS AMID THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND by Radhika Desai, Professor of Political Studies and Director of the Geopolitical Economy
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: From Pandemic to Political Pandemonium
A man wearing a facemask sits on the subway. Photo by Jacques Paquier/Flickr. This is the second in a seven-part, multi-week series of commentary on the COVID-19 crisis entitled WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A MANIFESTO FOR POLITICS AMID THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND by Radhika Desai, Professor of Political Studies
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Political Hope Rises
Rent strike graffiti spray painted on a building in Seattle. Photo from Twitter/@MW_Unrest. This is the first in a seven-part, multi-week series of commentary on the COVID-19 crisis entitled WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A MANIFESTO FOR POLITICS AMID THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND by Radhika Desai, Professor of Political Studies
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Unexpected Reckoning: Coronavirus and Capitalism
It is perhaps fitting that the seriousness of the coronavirus threat hit most of the Western world around the Ides of March, the traditional day of reckoning of outstanding debts in Ancient Rome. The previous week had been a veritable roller coaster ride. The World Health Organization (WHO) finally declared
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The US, Iran and the Danger of War
A mural depicts the Iranian national flag in Tehran on September 19, 2019. Photo by AFP. The tensions that emanated from the US assassination of General Qassam Soleimani on January 3 led the world to believe, for a terrible week, that it was on the brink of a Third World
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: It’s the economy, stupid!
Washington’s Long War on Syria Stephen Gowans Baraka Books, 2017 The impression of a region teeming with internecine enmities along bewilderingly archaic ethnic and religious lines hampers understanding of the Middle East. Stephen Gowans’s book on Syria contests this impression powerfully. It focuses on the origins, motivations and interactions of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The U of M stands at a historic crossroads
As I walk the picket lines with my colleagues, still strongly supporting the strike in its second week with no sign of a resolution, our stakes are very concrete: increased workloads, performance indicators, and arbitrary management decisions affecting job security, tenure, academic freedom, and collegial governance. At the same time,
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