For the past three days, my Facebook and Twitter feeds have been filled with a series of re-posts and re-tweets related to Professor Veronica Strong-Boag’s blogpost about International Women’s Day (IWD) for the (still-to-be-opened) Canadian Museum of Human Rights. According to the detailed report on ActiveHistory.ca, containing Strong-Boag’s post and
Continue readingTag: Social Movements
Politics and its Discontents: I Am Nobody
Something for all disheartened Canadians to keep in mind, eh? Recommend this Post
Continue readingCanadian Dimension | Articles: Mass revolts against democracy
In ancient Rome, especially during the late Republic, oligarchs resorted to mob violence to block, intimidate, assassinate or drive from power the dominant faction in the Senate. While neither the ruling or opposing factions represented the interests of the plebeians, wage workers, small farmers or slaves, the use of the
Continue readingRedBedHead: Blogging, Democracy and Revolution
I came across this well-written piece on the role of social media in social change, written by Jesse McLaren. I’ve often thought that the role of new media, social media etc etc has been under-theorized by Marxists. You tend to see stuff that goes in one of two directions: either
Continue readingRedBedHead: Blogging, Democracy and Revolution
I came across this well-written piece on the role of social media in social change, written by Jesse McLaren. I’ve often thought that the role of new media, social media etc etc has been under-theorized by Marxists. You tend to see stuff that goes in one of two directions: either
Continue readingRedBedHead: Blogging, Democracy and Revolution
I came across this well-written piece on the role of social media in social change, written by Jesse McLaren. I’ve often thought that the role of new media, social media etc etc has been under-theorized by Marxists. You tend to see stuff that goes in o…
Continue readingMelissa Fong: “Fight for liberation, not privilege”: For those who fight for Equity, not equality
Sometimes you read something that is so good and encapsulates what your heart has been wrenching about that you must share it. I have followed the Gay rights movement, the Queer rights movement and the general sentiment of “Just let me be a f*cking PERSON” movement for a long time.
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Anti-Gentrification Pidgin Protesting: Bad Urban Planning but Potential for Good Social Movement Building
This is a fifth instalment to the gentrification series- discussing the Protests and pickets in Vancouver’s DTES Thus far I haven’t been too clear about where my commitments lie. I understand both sides. Team Anti-gentrification/ CCAP/ Homeless Dave/ Poor people’s movement/ DTES advocate: They are locally organizing against some larger scale problems,
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Vancity & Anti-gentrification CCAP Protests in DTES: When social economy work gets messy
Vancity is a co-operative [2] bank that has been a long time funder of the Carnegie Community Action Project. On April 13th Vancity released a statement on their stance on CCAP Protests in the DTES. After a lengthy non-committal statement about their stance on housing and the gentrification of the
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Boston & People of colour’s pain
Perspectives like mine and others’ that alluded to the fact that killing elsewhere gets less attention than the Boston bombing got a lot of backlash. (I should say that it got more support than criticism, but we always focus on the negative things, don’t we?). One of the main criticisms
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: How Martin Luther King’s legacy speaks to our Canadian reality
n April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Most Canadians, even those with little knowledge of American history, will know King as a leader of the African-American civil rights movement, a Christian minister and a
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Anarchy, the Anti-Gentrification Front and Violence
Now, I never passed Anarchy 101 and have never painted a haphazard “A” within a circle in red paint. Ever. Never even thought about it. But I’m going to take a stab at understanding the logic behing the Anti-Gentrification Front and other groups associated with Anarchy. Now, I’m trying to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Reflections on CD through five decades
What motivated me to start producing a magazine in the basement of my rented house in Winnipeg in the fall of 1963? I was 27 years old at the time, and knew nothing at all about how to run a business, let alone publish a magazine. I had no money,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Dispossessing democracy
As Parliament resumes, Stephen Harper has made it clear that he remains committed to implementing Bill C-45 in the face of widespread social protest. But thanks, in part, to Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike, Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are now working together, through the Idle No More movement, to
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: New social movement assembly launches to take on the Harper agenda
Common Causes to hold solidarity actions across the country by Council of Canadians | Jan 24, 2013 On January 28, when Parliament resumes, the Harper agenda will face an unprecedented assembly of social movements uniting in Common Causes. The new people’s network is working with progressive partners, including Idle No More, to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: We are unstoppable; another world is possible
From time immemorial, youth have provided the catalytic energy and risk-taking behaviour for any social movement worth its name. When triggering events occur for the movement, it is invariably young people who are the first responders, pouring into the streets and demanding change. The sixties The Canada of the 1960s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Revolting Youth
Marching to the Music of Youth Radicals, unlike reactionaries, value youth. An American revolutionary who came out of the tradition of the Industrial Workers of the World, James P. Cannon, noted in 1950 that “The mark of a man’s life is his capacity to march to the music of his
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: The Right-Left Alliance between Egypt and Argentina
Once again world public opinion faces a most bizarre political event: an alliance between political forces on the extreme Right and the Left, including collaboration between NATO regimes and Marxist sects. The apparent unity of opposites is response to alleged policy and institutional changes made by center-left and center-right regimes,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Is the NDP becoming Liberal Lite?
A couple of polls showing the NDP losing support to the Liberals pose some pretty fundamental questions for the party and its small ‘l’ liberal leader Thomas Mulcair. Does the party follow the narrow political path of the two big business p…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Illustrative Action
Illustrate! Educate! Organize! Graphic novels are
fast becoming a popular and accessible tool of activism
in the 21st century. Indeed, a great number of
overtly political graphic works have been published
since 2000: Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography…