This and that for your Thursday reading.- Henry Farrell points out why supposedly progressive ideas which don’t do anything to counter corporate power are doomed to failure:Neo-liberals tend to favor a combination of market mechanisms and technocratic …
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Tar Sands Supported by Wall Government
You can read the piece that landed in my Inbox this a.m., below. To summarize, “The Government of Saskatchewan has demonstrated its commitment to oil sands exploration and development.” Some additional info: Map: http://www.oilsandsquest.co…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: SFPIRG: We stand in solidarity with CUPE 3338 and oppose the “reprehensible” recommendation to evict SFPIRG
The following is a quote from SFPIRG’s announcement to students, members, and supporters, posted on its website at www.sfpirg.ca. It is republished on PoliticsRespun.org in solidarity and to spread the word. SFPIRG stands in solidarity with and extends our full support to SFSS staff, members of CUPE 3338, who have been locked out of their […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: SFSS CUPE 3338 Lockout “either ignorance or malicious denigration of their vital work”: SFU student
The following open letter to the SFU community was written by SFU student Emma Noonan, originally titled “In Support of a Livable World” and originally published here. It is republished on PoliticsRespun with permission. On Sunday, July 10, 2011 at 2:13pm, the SFSS Board of Directors issued notice that they were locking out the staff […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: We are “refusing to cross picket lines”: Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Student Union and the SFSS CUPE Lockout
This open letter was originally written by Chelsea Mackay and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Student Student, published originally here and republished on PoliticsRespun.org with permission. Dear SFSS Board Members and President Jeff McCann, The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Student Union (GSWSSU) has been blindsided by the recent lockout of CUPE 3338 workers […]
Continue readingA Sustainable Now: Bursaries for Atlantic Eco-Warrior Training Camp!
Atlantic Eco-Warrior Training-August 11-14 2011 at the Harold T. Barrett Fun Forest Camp Sierra Youth Coalition’s Youth Action Gathering + Canadian Youth Climate Coalition’s PowerSummer When? August 11-14 2011, 4 days and 3 nights Where? Harold T. …
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Austerity Leads to Suicide Rate Increase
Friday’s Vancouver Sun had a short item that you might have missed, “Suicides up, road deaths down due to recession.” It’s in the bottom corner of page B5: Suicides rates rose sharply in Europe in 2007 to 2009 as the financial crisis drove unemployment up and squeezed incomes, with the worst hit countries like Greece […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose”; or, how to ideologically re-structure your student society: a beginner’s guide: the SFSS CUPE Lockout
By Joel Blok, originally published here. This summer five years ago, the Board of Directors of the SFSS suspended its office staff, barring them from entering their offices and sending them home. This past Thursday, a different board issued a lockout notice to its office staff, preventing them from work. In 2006, the rhetorical justification […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Thoughts on a Filibuster
Can I get a “WOW”? Just look at all those women! I couldn’t stop grinning as woman after woman after woman rose and spoke. What happened to all the arrogant white dudes? Oh, they’re posturing and questioning. I guess someone noticed as the past few questions have been lobbed by female CPC MPs. Aside from […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A no longer radical, now reactionary campus: The SFSS CUPE Lockout
There’s an almost mythical status to the label that Simon Fraser University used to promote itself in 2005 during its 40th anniversary celebrations: the university was a “radical campus.” The term comes from student activism that used to flood the campus, once called Berkeley North, student activism that established one of the first Womens’ Studies […]
Continue reading350 or bust: From Passive, Helpless Spectator To Creating Positive Change: “You Can’t Help Being An Optimist”
“You can’t help but be an optimist when you are contributing to positive change. Believe in your own power and then to be bold enough to use it. Together we will create a better world.” Marianne Schnall, writing in today’s Huffi…
Continue readingAnd so it goes: Yahoos on the prairies.
I suppose some folks think that the regina mom is a yahoo cuz she’s shooting off her mouth all the time. Really, she hasn’t had a lot of time for that cuz she has spent the past year and a bit marketing her book of poetry, This hot place from B.C. to Ontario. (And she […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.- Following up on yesterday’s post, the Hill Times reports that even the first set of cuts from the Harper Cons’ majority looks to have a serious effect on our federal government’s ability to function for itself rath…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Tabatha Southey eviscerates the Cons’ determination to force Canadians into a state of constant and unregulated online surveillance at their own expense:Bill C-51 seems to indicate a shift. It makes accessing…
Continue readingwmtc: why the canadian boat to gaza? david heap on cbc radio
My friend (and wmtc reader/commenter) David Heap was on CBC Ontario Morning radio yesterday, speaking from his hotel room in Athens, Greece, about why he’ll be on the Canadian Boat to Gaza, as part of Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human.Listen here.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Canucks Riots: Turn your neighbours in?
Yesterday, I wrote about the narrative of division that’s going around in the traditional media and social media following the Vancouver Riots. Jasmin wrote about the standard leap-to-blame-the-anarchists reaction that also came up. But now I’m getting kind of creeped out by the digital witch hunt that’s taking place, with a huge amount of websites […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: On the Canucks Riot, Protest, and Division
I was saddened and disappointed to watch Vancouver burn last night. Disappointed because the Canucks played so poorly and lost a game that they didn’t deserve to win, saddened to watch how the people in the streets ‘reacted’ to the game and went on a rampage, and I’m disappointed and saddened to watch the online–and […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: On Riots & Anarchists: the Media’s Reactionary Propaganda
Good afternoon Vancouver, how’s your head? The hand-wringing and spinning has commenced in full force now in the wake of the riot which gripped the downtown core after the Canucks Game 7 loss. The narrative which emerged, both in the media and thanks to public statements by the Vancouver Police, is that—are you ready for […]
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Stories From the March on Blair Mountain – Part 1 The March
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I arrived a few days early to headquarters in Marmet, WV with an overly large pack that threatened to topple me over with one slightly unbalanced step. A sleeping bag, m…
Continue readingwmtc: canadian boat to gaza: we will not be intimidated by threats or lawsuits
A message from the Canadian Boat to Gaza, to anyone who thinks they can bully the boat into submission:
We will not be intimidated by threats or lawsuits
It has been brought to our attention that a lawsuit has been filed against the Canadian Boat to G…
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