So, did you get a 3% raise last year? The average Canadian did. See the first chart below. If not, you’re behind the average Canadian. And even with a small offset of increased hours worked going up by only 1% for the 12 months ending last June, at worst, the
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Politics, 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: Imagine if the Olympics Really Benefited the People of the Host City
The London Olympics games closed with the words of “Imagine” by John Lennon and “Freedom” by George Michael. John Lennon sang “Imagine all the people living life in peace.” And then Eric Idle sang “Always look at the Bright Side of Life.” But what did the Olympic Games really bring
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: Bravery in a Time of Struggle
I was but wee when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It must have been quite trying: a feat of technological innovation, cooperative efforts by thousands of mostly anonymous people and the global fame of a few astonishingly brave people who would be willing to sit atop a huge bomb
Continue readingBullshit in absolutes: or how ‘liberal’* economists argue with themselves
We can perhaps amend an old Ethiopian saying to read “absolutes are for infants and kings”. It is catechism worth remembering when arguing with liberal economists. For theirs is not a just sport. In fact, one should never mix sport with justice. As Berlin said long ago (1958): Everything
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: GroupThink ReSpun: On US Police Forces Operating in Canada
We have decided that “GroupThink ReSpun” will be the name of the process whereby various of the Politics, Re-Spun crew collaborate on editorializing about a current event. Enjoy the poetry of the term! So apparently, the RCMP wants to ease into allowing US agents to operate freely in Canada: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/rcmp-ease-canadians-idea-u-agents-canada-201905380.html
Continue readingUnravelling Conservative Labour Market Policy: The Maximum Wage Law.
The OECD and the CATO institute have both consistently ranked Canadian labour markets as some of the most flexible in the advanced capitalist world. Indeed, Canada ranks only second to the US on most stingy when it comes to labour market protections. Odd then, that the Conservatives have chosen labour
Continue readingCHAPTER 8: The Miserable Metrics of Neoliberalism
Conclusion to Chapter 8 Consistent with the main line of argument in this thesis then, is the proposition that labour market flexibilisation is the other side of the neoliberal policy coin; namely, price stability and conservative fiscal policy all locked in via the globalisation of production and finance. In this
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 readingPhilosophy, Music and Art in the Service of the Quebec Student Protests
Un grand tonnerre Mai 22 Ariane Moffatt contre la loi spéciale Melissa Fillion, Capital Humain Tweet
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: How To Resolve The Transit Fare Evasion Problem
Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom is bringing in new legislation to crack down on fare evaders, allowing collection agencies to go after people who don’t buy tickets. If Lekstrom really wants to deal with fare evasion, then he needs to realize why people don’t pay the transit fares. If people can’t afford to buy a transit
Continue readingDutch Diseased Labour Markets
If one reads the G&M and NatPo business sections one is treated to a steady stream of largely rosy and pompous pronouncements on the structural shift in the Canadian economy towards resource extraction on the one hand, and on the other hand, to the non- tradeable service sectors. The tell
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: School employers seek to force BCTF members to volunteer
This is kind of amazing – the BC Public Schools Employers’ Association (the arms-length thing the government created to manage negotiations with the BCTF) is going to the LRB to try to have the withdrawal by teachers from voluntary activities declared illegal. Uhh, what? So the BC government thinks that
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: More Worker Bashing in BC, with Squishy Numbers
Below is a recent tweet from a new worker/NDP/union attack Twitter i.d. talking about how awful unionized workers are. Read it, then let’s de-spin it for sanity: Average salary in BC $44k, average teacher salary $70k bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/ #Underpaid #Overworked #Lies #BCPoli #BCNDP #BCTF via Twitter / @NotBCNDP: Average salary in
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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