Winnipeg, April 4, 2024: Members of Peace Alliance Winnipeg marked the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with an information picket in the Osborne Villlage neighbourhood of Winnipeg. Following is the text of the statement they distributed. Canada Must Get Out of NATOIt’s High
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Views from the Beltline: Happy birthday, NATO!
This month the North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrates its 75th. And any individual would consider themselves fortunate it they were in as good shape. NATO first saw the light of day on April 4th, 1949, when Canada, the U.S., the UK and nine other European states signed the founding treaty.
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The morality of tyrants
I have long been intrigued at how men who inflict torture and murder on their fellow human beings can consider themselves moral leaders. History is replete with authoritarians of various hues who fit the mould. One who exemplifies the type at the moment is Russia’s very own Vladimir Putin. One
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The cluster bomb curse
The United States recently took a step towards civilizing war, if war can be in any way termed civilized. Last Friday the US Defence Department made history by destroying the last chemical weapon in its military arsenal. The US Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997 and it began
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Dimitri Lascaris on why we need to make peace with Russia
On Thursday, June 22, 2023, Canadian lawyer, journalist, and peace activist Dimitri Lascaris spoke in Winnipeg about his recent trip to Russia and the need for Canada to promote a peaceful end to the conflict in Ukraine. Lascaris was on a 10-city Canadian tour entitled “Making Peace with Russia, One
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: How neoliberalism brought down Russia … and nearly us
The economic collapse of the 1930s brought down democracies across Europe unleashing fascism across the continent. Other countries, including Canada and the United States, introduced drastic measures to protect the vulnerable which helped save them from the same fate. Capitalism was failing, rescued by the rudiments of the welfare state.
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A warrant for the world’s “most brazen mobster”
If there has been a knock on the International Criminal Court (ICC) it’s that it has focussed excessively on developing countries. Of the over 50 individuals the court has indicted, the majority are from Africa. The court has now issued a warrant for a European and they couldn’t have made
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A warrant for the world’s “most brazen mobster”
If there has been a knock on the International Criminal Court (ICC) it’s that it has focussed excessively on developing countries. Of the over 50 individuals the court has indicted, the majority are from Africa. The court has now issued a warrant for a European and they couldn’t have made
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Putin and Peter—What’s NATO got to do with it?
NATO is frequently brought up in the discussion of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Some pundits suggest it is a cause, even to some a justification. I would suggest NATO has little to do with it except as an excuse for Putin’s imperialism. Putin was a child of the Soviet
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: He’s Living In The Past
For quite some time, I have suspected that Putin was living in the past – quite specifically, the Cold War. His "State of the Nation" speech today confirmed that. Most news outlets are pointing out two major features of the speech: 1. Putin blaming "The West" for the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Emma Beddington rightly questions the determination of the powers that be to pretend that COVID-19 never happened – though her attempt to treat an ongoing pandemic as merely a past issue is itself misplaced. Megan Ford discusses long COVID’s especially damaging impact on nurses.
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Negotiate Peace in Ukraine
Winnipeg, January 21, 2023: Members of Peace Alliance Winnipeg distributed literature in Winnipeg’s Osborne Village calling for an immediate ceasefire and negotiated peace agreement to end the Ukraine War. Following is the statement they distributed. Please share widely. More war and weapons are not the way to peace! Statement of
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The noble Nobels
The collapse of the Soviet Union, the “Evil Empire,” was perhaps the most welcome event of the latter part of the 20th century. Almost three hundred million people freed from totalitarian rule in a historical moment, and peacefully at that. Tragically not all have remained free. Half of them are
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Peace Through Pieces – Functionalism in International Relations
Once and awhile Counterpunch surprises me with a bit of unvarnished factual reporting. I didn’t know that Functionalism was a think in International Relations – but what a great concept to make the world a more peaceable place. “Peace through pieces” was an important contribution to understanding mediating differences by
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: November
There are things going on. From absurd numbers of kids home sick from school, to the Grey Cup going on today in Regina. The most vocal civilian critic of the SaskParty’s support of abusive religious schools (who were teaching dinosaurs were around with Creationist people), had their home vandalized with
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: And after Putin?
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not happy in the modern world. A child of Soviet Communism and of that particular enthusiasm bred by service in the KGB, he prefers government with a firm hand, preferably his. And his nostalgia for the old days carries him back even further. He has,
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: About Russia and security
Russia has throughout its history been the victim of brutal invasions. From the east across the steppe came the hordes of Genghis Khan in the 13th century, and from the west the armies of Napoleon and Hitler in the 19th and 20th centuries. One can easily appreciate its concern about
Continue readingThings Are Good: Ukrainian Company Produces Easy to Install Solar Panels to get Europe Off Russian Gas
Oil is not just a reason countries go to war, it’s used during war to destabilize allies. Russia’s war in Ukraine is no exception to this as the Russians are profiting from selling Europe gas while threatening to cut off gas supplies to the continent at the same time. A
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Putin making Russia great again
Both the two major world powers during the Cold War have had leaders who wanted to “make their nations great again.” Both hark back nostalgically to some imagined golden age. One, former U.S. president Donald Trump, MAGA-man, largely failed. He did, however, sow the seeds for a successor by pushing
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: There is a Russian opposition
Russian’s new tsar, Vlad the shirtless, is not a man to entertain opposition. People who cross him have been known to be poisoned, shot, imprisoned or, in the case of the Chechens, bombed back to the Stone Age. Draconian measures have been signed into law to silence critics of his
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