Pollution, people and tombstones in Zenica. Owned by the Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steel producer—creating some 93 billion USD of revenue as of 2011. Granted, steel is an essential building block of the modern world yet ArcelorMittal’s obscene profit margins do raise the question of
Continue readingTag: A Better World is Needed
Politics, Re-Spun: There are no words.
There are insufficient facts today to accurately tell what has happened at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut today. Even worse, there are no words to describe what has happened. Someone has taken a gun into an elementary school and shot people inside. There are no words. The
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: No, Taylor Swift. No.
[Here is what some of us have been wanting to say about Taylor Swift, but didn’t because A. Lynn did it first, and perhaps best, reposted her with her kind permission. Thanks to Jarrah Hodge for pointing us to this piece of brilliance! Enjoy! – seb] I’ve been mentally composing this blog for forever and […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Art for Impact presents: Ou(x)po, Dec 8
If you live in the Vancouver area and enjoy arts of all flavours, and contributing to amazing causes, you will absolutely want to check out Ou(x)po, Art for Impact’s ninth show, upcoming on December 8. Here are some details: Join Art for Impact at Ou(x)po What: Art for Impact’s ninth event – Ou(x)po ! (oo-EX-poh) Where: Russian Hall […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Encouraging Early Political Engagement: I Have the Right to Be a Child
Early political engagement is a hot button topic for a number of us here at Politics ReSpun. As parents and/or political animals, we spend a lot of time contemplating methods of public engagement that would draw youth into political culture, and foster both interest and comprehension of sociopolitical events. Apathy
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fair Weather Friends: Western Reaction(s) to the Middle East Protests
The ongoing protests in the parts of the Middle East and North Africa, ostensibly in the wake of a Z-list anti-Islam film produced in the US, have elicited the same tired, hackneyed response on the part significant portions of Western audiences and commentators. “Savages,” the refrain has been, “uncivilized barbarians!”
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Let’s Watch Where Quebec Leads Us All
Less than 12 after being elected to a minority government in Quebec, the PQ has announced it will cancel the socially and economically regressive tuition fee hikes and repeal the flagrantly unconstitutional Bill 78, which trampled on expression and assembly rights. Quebec, long one of the most progressive socially and
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Historical Revisionism: A Balkan Cottage Industry?*
*My apologies to the good hard-working people of the global cottage and cottage cheese industries and the good people of the Balkans for once again being sullied by Western analyst-cum-charlatans. Followers of the Politics, Re-Spun Facebook page may have been keeping up with my recent debate(s) with one Charles Crawford, who “served
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Act of Valor, Redux
“Before my father died, he said the worst thing about growing old was that other men stop seeing you as dangerous….Dangerousness was sacred.” Last night I watched Act of Valor. I liveblogged it so you don’t have to watch it. You’re welcome. First there was The Lottery, a dystopic tale
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fixing Canada’s Democracy, Part 74 of 877
I spent 3 hours in the House of Commons from midnight to 3am this morning watching the contemptuous debauchery of the Conservative government squash democracy in ramming through Bill C-38. Several weeks ago I also spent some time in the BC legislature watching that version of embarrassing contempt. Beyond a
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Casseroles Night in Canada
It’s the evening. It’s 8pm. Dinner has been cleared away, the children have finished their homework. What is a family to do? Take to the streets, of course. Pots and wooden spoons in hand, the family all gathers in the street. They exchange pleasant conversation with their neighbours, who are
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Women’s Rights in Bosnia: An Interview with Aleksandra Petrić
In the 1990s, Bosnia-Herzegovina became synonymous with the horrific violence, ethnic cleansing and genocide which characterized the country’s experience within the broader dissolution of the Yugoslav state. In particular, the systematic rape and sexual violence of Bosnian women during the course of the war has continued to remain pertinent both
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Book Review: “The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics”
Now Available from AK Press & your local Infoshop! The touchstone for many of the struggles currently enveloping us—from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement to the events in the Quebec—is the question of how far our conception of democracy extends and especially as it relates to the economic
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Dare You Drones Resist?!
It is truly stunning to see how the elites react when people dare speak out against “austerity” – that is, to squeeze even more profits out of workers, students, and citizens in general. Almost as appalling is the way that the corporate media (and often the CBC) follow the party
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Quebec Law Seeks to End Student Strikes, Prohibit Protests with 10+ People Without Notice
Tonight in the Assemblée Nationale, Quebec Premier Jean Charest is pushing through a law that would seek to end the Quebec student protests (the #GGI, or the #manifencours). The law would prohibit “demonstrations” in a “venue accesible by the public” unless the organizers of the demonstration had provided at least
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Balkan Voices: Anti-Austerity Protests in Montenegro Heat Up
Translation and contextual information by Konstantin Kilibarda Montenegro has been ruled by the same political party, the Democratic Party of Socialist (DPS), for the past 23 years. Along with the government of Belarus, Montenegro has the dubious distinction of being the only country in Europe that hasn’t seen a change in
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Pride for the Maple Spring
I know it’s such an Alan Moore thing to say, but people shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people. We should be proud of students in Quebec for rejecting Charest’s offer. Here’s what I find interesting as a parent: We often strive to teach
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Quebec Students and a Maple Spring
What do you think about the student strike in Quebec? What do you think of the Manifesto for a Maple Spring? Some of the Politics, Re-Spun crew explore it from each of our perspectives: 1. Are people naive to expect the Quebec tuition protesters to be the leaders of a
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: No Iron Lady, But the Lady is a True Orchid of Steel
Aung San Suu Kyi appears in public after her release on November 14, 2010 Coming out in the heels of Aung San Suu Kyi recent electoral breakthrough of her National League for Democracy, The Lady, an epic feature film directed by Luc Besson, about the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Re: Huffington Post & the Quebec Spring (Again!)
I had previously been under the impression that the Huffington Post was a generally a left-liberal sort of enterprise. However, it appears that one does not win a Pulitzer these days without some token “dissent.” After all, we know how difficult it is for right-wing perspectives to be heard in
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