This and that for your Thursday reading. – The OECD is the latest independent observer to confirm Thomas Mulcair’s point that dutch disease is a real problem for Canadian manufacturing. And Marc Lee calls for a green industrial revolution as a better path toward economic development and environmental responsibility than
Continue readingTag: labour.
Accidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review – May 8, 2012
Tuesday, May 8 saw another day of debate on the Cons’ omnibus budget legislation – and another day of general non-responsiveness from the Cons as to its actual effects. But that wasn’t for lack of important contributions from the opposition benches. The Big Issue Marie-Claude Morin raised issues about the
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2012 program notes: the quebec student strike, or, why every canadian needs to bang on a pan
I want to begin my posts from Marxism 2012 with the Quebec Student Strike, because it’s currently the most important progressive development unfolding in Canada. By now it should be obvious that the Quebec student strike is not only a student strike and is not only about Quebec. It should be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Lana Payne weighs in on the Cons’ goal of reducing wages for Canadian workers: As an economist, Stephen Harper must know what his government’s changes to employment insurance (EI), the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), the elimination of the Fair Wage Act
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paul Krugman highlights the anti-social austerity agenda at work in the U.K. and U.S.: (T)he austerity drive in Britain isn’t really about debt and deficits at all; it’s about using deficit panic as an excuse to dismantle social programs. And this is, of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thomas Walkom makes the point that the hysterical response from Brad Wall and others can’t mask the fact that Thomas Mulcair is right in his analysis of the effect of a high, resource-driven dollar: Mulcair’s solution is hardly radical. He argues that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom criticizes the Cons’ war on labour at the federal level – though John Ivison notes that the Cons’ habit of interfering in every federal labour dispute looks to help the NDP all the more. And Pat Atkinson worries that the Sask
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review – May 4, 2012
Friday, May 4 saw a relatively short day of debate on the omnibus budget bill – but with a few twists on the discussion seen to date. The Big Issue Claude Gravelle noted that the range of major changes in C-38 goes far beyond the environment alone. Ted Hsu wondered
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review – May 4, 2012
Friday, May 4 saw a relatively short day of debate on the omnibus budget bill – but with a few twists on the discussion seen to date. The Big Issue Claude Gravelle noted that the range of major changes in C-38 goes far beyond the environment alone. Ted Hsu wondered
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Harald Bauder comments on the Cons’ continued efforts to provoke a race to the bottom when it comes to wages: (B)oth the planned EI reforms and the temporary foreign workers program are part of a wider strategy of lowering the bar on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – T.C. Norris points out that one of the most important developing themes in economic research is the recognition that reductions in employment insurance benefits only force job-seekers into damaging situations rather than creating economic benefits. But as we all know, mere facts won’t
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: May 1, 2012
Tuesday, May 1 saw more debate on a couple of relatively non-contentious bills – along with a prime example of the Cons’ blinkered focus on mandatory minimum sentences. The Big Issue In continued debate on the Lucky Moose self-defence bill, the NDP pointed out some of the ways the legislation
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Michael Harris rightly tears into the Cons for turning our federal government into Versailles on the Ottawa: The Harper government has more than a touch of Queen Nancy. It has already morphed into Versailles on the Ottawa. The facts, and the rules, are being
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Julian Beltrame reports on the Cons’ concerted efforts to add to corporate bottom lines by attacking working Canadians: One of the measures is so sneaky, says NDP MP Pat Martin, nobody seemed to notice the line buried deep in the 452-page Bill C-38
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Duncan Cameron discusses how the Cons have already taken Canada and the world in exactly the wrong direction. But Murray Dobbin points out that we should be working on how to change things for the better once they’re finally removed from office,
Continue readingwmtc: solidarity with striking quebec students. shame on charest and all supporters of bill 78.
I haven’t blogged much about the enormous, sustained and absolutely brilliant student strikes and demonstrations in Quebec. I’ve just been watching them from afar with admiration and deep respect. Now that the Quebec government has adopted the draconian Bill 78, the stakes are raised even higher. The students and unions
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Robert Cross and Glen McGregor point out how “Pierre Poutine” covered his tracks in the course of sending out fraudulent robocalls to direct voters away from the correct polls. And it’s particularly worth noting how blatantly the entire scheme was planned to conceal
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne tears into the Cons for being interested solely in developing a junk labour market where both work safety and income security are sorely lacking. And Chris Selley offers his own rebuttal to the “no such thing as a bad job” mentality:
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Labour Struggles in the New Age of Austerity
The first months of 2012 hardly represented a new beginning for the working class in Canada and internationally. From the riots and general strike in Greece to the lockout of Electro Motive Diesel in London, workers have found ourselves under severe attack. This winter offensive by employers is a continuation
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Cons’ imposition of an economic policy which benefits a few at the expense of people who get no say in the matter is just the latest (if worst) example of their becoming everything they once claimed to loathe. For more on the economic argument (which in
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