It was -17 degrees in London, Ontario, today, where a foreign company has locked out 400 Canadian workers. To try to slash their wages and benefits by more than fifty percent, and gut their pensions. And in Alma, Quebec, where another foreign company has locked out 700 Canadian workers, and
Continue readingTag: capitalism
Montreal Simon: The Harper Cons and the Race to the Bottom
What would you say if you worked at Caterpillar’s Electro-Motive plant in London, Ontario, and found yourself locked out? Because you wouldn’t agree to have your wages and health benefits cut by more than fifty percent, and your pension eliminated altogether. Even though Caterpillar is making record profits. Its CEO
Continue readingJymn’s half-assed Predictions for 2012
Occupy will stay underground and grow its infrastructure and goals. More and more organizations and individuals will pledge allegiance to the movement. The media will interpret this lack of visibility to the failure of Occupy and continue to treat supporters as dirty fucking hippies. The year of Occupy will have
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: In the US, ‘progressive’ is the king of all political labels
Here is some good news for you progressives in Canada and elsewhere in the world. Americans dig the term “progressive”. A new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows that …Read More
Continue readingBlaming the borrower and not the devil, in this case the banks
There’s been a recent concerning trend of conservatives blaming the general public for what they call reckless spending and borrowing. These right-wingers often say things like: Well, you borrowed the money and signed on the dotted line, it’s your fault! It kind of reminds of certain Disney cartoon scenes where
Continue readingTop story of 2011
First of all, best wishes to all of you in your endeavours in the new year. We need more then ever to strive towards enlightenment in the new reality that we pretend is democracy. In this spirit, I will resolve to educate as many people as I can reach on
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Other People’s Money
“Other People’s Money” by Justin Cartwright (Bloomsbury, 2011) is to the novel what the wonderful “Margin Call” is to film – a fictionalized but convincing account of high finance and the crisis of 2008. In this case, the central characters are the old money family owners of a private London
Continue readingLeftist debate on politics and power
A fascinating exchange of ideas on, amongst other things, the limits of the Occupy movement and the need to explore ways to bring about change of (not in) the system through the exercise of political power. Protests alone are an important start but, according to expert leftists and activists will
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Economics 101: The Reality of Canadian Capitalism
In More Academic Terms
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Capitalist Pigs and the Cream Separator
Uh oh. I mean oink oink. I see the unrepentant capitalist pig just can’t help itself. Stuffing itself with human misery. While the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. A new report finds that the gap between the rich and the poor just keeps getting wider in Canada.
Continue readinga significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Combined with Harper Regime’s Austerity Program, Continuous Deleveraging of Household Debt Could be a Serious Issue
House prices have been speculatively bid up to 29% over real value with all the low interest, easy credit banks have been only too willing to give us. They’re just sooo good to us. But a little recent fear has begun a deleveraging of household debt in Canada – which
Continue readingTents? Pepper Spray? On Black Friday? Where’s the Public Outrage?
Ken Sanders Photo Photo h/t Queer Thoughts Well, well, well! What do we have here? Occupy Best Buy? In a manner of speaking. All those campers are not there to for Occupy movement values though. No, they’re not protesting whatever poor business practices the big box store may practice. No,
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Occupy Movement and the Nature of the Beast
Twenty four hours after this little campsite was demolished, I see that Margaret Wente couldn’t restrain herself from going down to St James Park, squatting on all fours, and delivering this dreary dump. Despite the current circumstances, every single protester in North America is pretty well guaranteed a comfortable middle-class
Continue readingNo Grassroots Support…No Problem
If it's not on a cup, it's not true. Guess what folks, you can buy your official Made In The USA Obama merch now. Have a birther friend who you just cannot find a gift for. The Made In USA mug is your best choice. You can also get it
Continue readingAnd The Harpercon Hits Just Keep On Coming! Peter Kent: Basically, If I Don’t Know What it Is, It Can’t Be Important
Well, boys ‘n’ girls, we have a science and technology minister in ol’ Gary Goodyear who is a creationist and doesn’t believe in evolution. Ok, not all that surprising, given the gang of Christian evangelicals in our government. Now, it appears that our very own environment minister, Peter Kent, is
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Next Time a Pig Screams…
You can tell him this: Wrong. You are the 0.01 % and you’re a greedy PIG… And remember, in Canada the gap between the rich and the poor is growing even faster than the one in the United States. Of course, the pigs will say that you can be rich
Continue readingOccupy: Canadian media turns its back on the homeless, the marginalized, the disenfranchised
While many of us progressives like to think that the Occupy movement has awakened Canadians to the 99%, the reality is different. Editorial boards across Canada have seen to the marginalization of Occupy by concentrating on its weakest and most vulnerable members. By accommodating the homeless, the disenfranchised and the
Continue readingI Can See Lieutenant Pike Doing That
Indeed I think that’s exactly how Georges Seurat would’ve visualized ol’ Lieutenant Pike. As Jymn said, he is definitely UC Davis’ answer to Toronto’s Officer Bubbles. Other fun images of ol’ Lieutenant Pike can be found here. H/T Jymn
Continue readingA Clever Creative Post Eviction Idea From Occupy Wall Street
As occupy encampments are being cleared out by bruit force all across the US and eviction notices have been handed out in Canada (some have been or are being challenged through the courts, many ask, “what’s next?”. Is there life after the tent cities? Personally, I have reservations, which I
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