I’ve decided to post my notes from last year’s Marxism conference after all. It’s always bothered me that I never found the time to post them, so why not. It’s not as if stopping the right-wing agenda, supporting a free Palestine, or the reality in Afghanistan is no longer an
Continue readingTag: Socialism
The Progressive Economics Forum: Austerity can be fought !
Asked by an anglophone journalist what the Québec students struggle means for the ROC, this is what I had to say. http://cutvmontreal.ca/videos/1102 I’m was among a varied group of people who published a declaration tuesday, on May day, in support of the student movement. One of the main themes of
Continue readingwmtc: occupy may day
Today is May Day, the International Workers’ Day, a day to celebrate our strength and our unity as working people. Although May Day is an official holiday in many countries around the world, many working-class Americans are unaware of it. 2012 might change that. There has been talk of a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On equivocal labels
I’ll agree with the commentators pointing out that Nanos’ polling on party labels shows far more trouble for the Cons than for the NDP. But let’s point out another part of the story that the media spin seems to be leaving out. Plenty of the terms used in association with
Continue readingwmtc: what are people supposed to do? or, why we need socialism
As I read news stories, read blogs, skim headlines, one question keeps coming to my mind, over and over. What are people supposed to do? Income insecurity Wages have been slashed or have been stagnant for years. Corporations continue to eliminate jobs, forcing the survivors to work much harder for
Continue readingwmtc: bill maher’s good (and occasionally funny) thoughts on castrophobia
Thanks to Jere.
Continue readingwmtc: digital jigsaw puzzles, this quiet blog, and the current state of my brain
The writing part of my brain appears to be on vacation. It didn’t request time off; it doesn’t have to. It’s the boss. I have a pile of topics I’d like to write about, but Writing Brain is off in the woods somewhere, recovering from academia. So what is the
Continue readingwmtc: the tale of ozzie guillen, fidel castro, free speech, and corporate welfare: a story with irony to spare
Those of you who don’t follow baseball – which I assume is most of you – might never have heard of Ozzie Guillen before this week, or maybe don’t know his name now. Guillen is a Major League Baseball manager and a former player, a guy who is often described
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: What Obama Should Say If His Health Bill Loses in Court
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform bill, had its three days in the Supreme Court last week, and by most accounts it did not go very well. Nothing is certain until the Court delivers its ruling in June. But if it does
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Socialism and Happiness – A Coincidence?
I don’t know what the extreme right-wing will make of this, but the fact that the top five countries on the Happiness Index either have socialism at their core or sufficient elements to ensure the general well-being of their populations should give the rabid advocates of unfettered capitalism some pause.
Continue readingwmtc: why unions? would you rather have input into your working conditions, or not?
I’ve never understood why so many working people have it in for unions. I understand why employers don’t want unions: unions give workers input into their own working conditions. A union workplace shifts the balance from the employer having 100% of the power to the employer having some amount less
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: We Need To Free Ourselves From Our U.S.-Dominated Perspective
I have always thought that one of the biggest tragedies for Canadians is the fact of our proximity to the United States. Not only is our cultural perspective heavily influenced by that closeness, but so too is the way we view economics, which helps to explain the inroads in the
Continue readingwmtc: quebec leads the way with resistance, in the halls of power and on the street
Two more reasons to say j’aime le Quebec. Two days ago, the Cons’ ridiculously wasteful, unnecessary, and inhumane crime bill was passed in the House of Commons. The leadership of Quebec wasted no time in striking a blow for justice and common sense. The province announced Tuesday that it would
Continue readingwmtc: pity the 1%, continued
Further to our chat about the tone-deaf 1%: go here for Brian McFadden‘s latest in the New York Times.
Continue readingwmtc: pity the 1%
“Cash bonuses on Wall Street are expected to drop by 14 percent during this year’s ‘bonus season’.” Only 20 billion will be doled out instead of the usual 121,00 billion. How sad. That’s billion, with a B. Bankers’ trophy dates are sad, too. Be sure to click – and read
Continue readingkirbycairo: What is Capitalism?
The late, great Ernest Mandel who was banned from entering the US for much of his life, wrote what is probably the very best introduction to Marx’s Capital ever written. Though trained as an economist, Mandel had a knack for explaining things
Continue readingRedBedHead: Every Revolution Has Its Road
I was reading about the terrible, terrible tragedy in Egypt last night and today – 74 dead at a soccer match – and the ensuing mass protests and national explosion of anger. And I was struck by how the battle is unfolding in Egypt, the way that the military dictatorship
Continue readingwmtc: hedges: what happened to canada? (corporations have no borders)
Chris Hedges: What happened to Canada? It used to be the country we would flee to if life in the United States became unpalatable. No nuclear weapons. No huge military-industrial complex. Universal health care. Funding for the arts. A good record on the environment. But that was the old Canada.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Are we there yet?
Mature capitalist political economies all feature elaborate electoral institutions. This is useful to capitalism as it suggests that capitalism and democracy—a value that everyone purports to cherish—are compatible. More, if the citizenry can be made to believe that, through its democratic participation, it can limit any untoward capitalist excesses, it
Continue reading