Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street is a history and ethnography of Occupy Wall Street, and the Occupy movement. Author, sociologist, and longtime leftist activist Todd Gitlin has written an account of how a social movement was born, grew, and died. After reading
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Scripturient: America’s time machine
We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin… our homes are covered with mortgages, labor impoverished; and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists… The fruits of toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes
Continue readingwmtc: required reading for revolutionaries: jane mcalevey and micah white
I’ve wanted to write about these two books for a long time, but adequately summarizing them is a daunting task. I just want to say to every activist and organizer: READ THESE BOOKS. I don’t want to represent the authors’ ideas, I want you to read them yourself. No Shortcuts:
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If Donald Trump won’t knuckle under, could he face an American ‘Colour Revolution’?
PHOTOS: One of many anti-Trump rallies in the United States in the past few days (from Facebook). Below: U.S. President Elect Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, U.S. Senator John McCain and Julius Caesar. It would be an irony if the troubles the United States has visited on much
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Greedy One Percent and the Moral Message of Bernie Sanders
I remember seeing a lot of signs like those one during the heady days of the Occupy movement.Back in the days when everything seemed possible, and it looked like the beginning of a revolution.But of course it didn't happen, the movement was brutall…
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Occupy Movement Gets Its Own TV Station
The Occupy movement has partnered with FilmOn Networks to create a free 24/7 Online “TV for the 99” television outlet for news, evidence, and commentary. The post Occupy Movement Gets Its Own TV Station appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: If the 1% Has Russell Brand Killed…
If the 1% has Russell Brand killed, we will see it in the corporate media as a drug OD relapse, or a freak accident. Why? He is dangerous because he fearlessly tells the truth and challenges pretence. Let’s examine this in some detail here [with video]: His brain works twice
Continue readingwmtc: hedges: "when harper passes right-to-work, you must go on a massive general strike, or you’re finished"
Last night, I heard author, journalist, and activist Chris Hedges speak at the Bloor Street United Church in Toronto, sponsored by the excellent Canadian Dimension. Hedges is a radical intellectual, in the Chomsky vein, also compassionate and fearless, in the mode of Howard Zinn. He touched on many subjects –
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Corcoran Misses The Point On Income Disparity
On CBC’s “The House” this weekend, I heard an interview with the Financial Post’s Terrance Corcoran, in which he was basically poo-pooing the very real issue of the growing disparity between Canada’s top earners and the rest of Canadians. He made a comparison between a pensioner pulling in $20,000 a
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The 1%, Their Cottages, and the Occupy Movement
You aren’t middle class if you own a cottage. Remember that. If I need to single-handedly reboot the Occupy Movement for this one, I’ll do it, I tell ya [emphasis is mine]: A month ago, I had a conversation with Deb Hutton, wife of PC leader Tim Hudak, who said
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why Do They Want Us To Shut Up?
If we were harmless, the riot cops would stay home. It’s Friday. It’s been a long week. Like most weeks. We are taught to fit in and obey. We are told that individuality and the search for social justice will get us in trouble, either by government surveillance or social
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Class War: US$11.5 Trillion Hidden in Tax Havens
Which tax haven is right for you? Class war is alive and well. I have this rose-coloured, nostalgic dream of history. Once upon a time we emerged from feudalism with a democratic revolution. All were equal. Well, most. But the hope of democracy was to rid the world of the
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Dissent or Terror: New Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide
By: Center for Media and Democracy | Press Release: MADISON, WI – May 20 – DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy today released the results of a year-long investigation: “Dissent or Terror: How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, In Partnership With Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street.” The
Continue readingwmtc: are we seeing the beginning of global people’s revolution?
“There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear…” This week, I attended a talk put on by the International Socialists, featuring an organizer with OUR Walmart, by Skype from Texas, and a Toronto-based union activist. Both speakers were terrific and so inspiring, but although I took copious notes,
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Why The Income Inequality Deniers Are Wrong
This article was published in an abridged form today in the National Post. http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/12/21/armine-yalnizyan-sorry-andrew-coyne-but-income-inequality-is-a-real-problem/ I like this opening better so I posted it here. You couldn’t have made it through 2012 without running into a story about income inequality. Chances are, it made you think about how you fit into
Continue readingwmtc: more signs of life in the labour movement: non-union workers rising
Of all the reasons for hope that we’ve seen in recent times – Wisconsin, the Occupy Movement, the Quebec students’ actions, the Chicago teachers’ strike – this trend gives me the most joy and the most hope. Here are three stories of non-unionized workers organizing themselves to change conditions in
Continue readingwmtc: from greece to chicago to toronto, workers fighting back against austerity
Working my way backwards, this the second of four talks I attended that I’ll be reporting on. * * * * In November, I heard Nikos Loudos of the Socialist Workers Party in Greece (by Skype) and Canadian activist and organizer Carolyn Egan speak about the recent general strike in
Continue readingwmtc: rtod: i ain’t marching (to the u.s. polls) anymore
I spent the summer and fall of 2004 working on a Get Out The Vote campaign for the Democrats, not because they were my party of choice, but because I was angry at the prospect of another stolen election, and I wanted to make a difference in the popular vote
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: So Did YOU Get a 3% Raise Last Year?
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
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Occupy Movement and the Quebec Students
It's been almost a year since the Occupy Wall Street movement was born, and in this very gloomy article Gerald Caplan wonders where it went. It flashed through our lives like a comet in the sky, illuminating the most insidious development of our time. Then just as suddenly it flamed
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