Sinatra’s birthday today: We remember when “Old Blue Eyes” was red
December 12, 2019 1:19 PM CST BY GERALD MEYER Frank Sinatra | AP This article first appeared in Science and Society in the Fall of 2002 and was run…
Communism
Eastern Europe happy (mostly) with democracy and free markets
In November, 1989, the world’s most infamous wall came down and the “Evil Empire” crumbled away. The communist regimes of Eastern Europe collapsed like dominoes and by 1990 free elections…
Putin Fails Liberal Democracy 101
Vladimir Putin is perhaps first among the anti-democratic strongmen that have emerged to soil the world. At the recent G20 summit he couldn’t resist taking a shot at liberal democracy,…
Message to my American Cousins: It’s mellow up here; there is no communist revolution yet; no one wants to take Manhattan
Dear American Cousins, literal and metaphorical: The day before yesterday, medical and recreational cannabis became legal in Canada. The Canada correspondent for the New York Times reported excitedly that we…
Fear of Soviet bombers a concern during the Trans Mountain Pipeline debate of 1952
The current debate around the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline centres around political posturing, provincial jurisdiction, investment priorities, climate change, coastal protection and consent by First Nations communities, but when…
The "But Communism Was Bad" Argument
Lately, when debating matters of economics, people that I will broadly call “small government advocates” (usually hardline fiscal hawk conservatives and libertarians) will inevitably start throwing about the argument that…
Impact of growing opioid crisis on life expectancy in the United States is more evidence that neoliberal austerity kills
PHOTOS: This scene is in Paris. It could be anywhere in our “globalized,” that is, neoliberalized world. (Photo: Eric Poulhier, Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Rundown but dignified Havana, high-profile U.S. economist…
Jim Hole, high-profile Alberta horticulturalist, does his bit to make cannabis cultivation respectable in Canada
PHOTOS: Hole’s Greenhouses co-owner Jim Hole at yesterday’s news conference at his store in St. Albert. Below: Atlas Growers President and CEO Sheldon Croome. Below him: Mr. Hole tests the…
Where is Che now that we need him?
Maybe it’s simple nostalgia, but it seems to me the world was a lot better off when the Soviet Union was around. Really. Bear with me while I explain. When…
Mao: The Unknown Dictator
Although I have read many biographies of the European dictators, and many histories of Europe and the Americas in the first half of the 20th century, I hadn’t read much…
Calgary-Foothills: The first by-election in Alberta’s post-PC political world
Today’s by-election in Calgary-Foothills is the first litmus test for Alberta’s political parties in the post-Progressive Conservative political world. When Rachel Notley led NDP candidates to victory in fifteen constituencies…
The anti-communist memorial—an outrage to Canadian heritage
I recently wrote the following letter to The Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages: Dear Minister: I am writing in regard to the Memorial to the…
The Soviet Machiavelli
I’ve written a new piece for my Municipal Machiavelli blog about the late (1982) Mikhail Suslov, the “Soviet Machiavelli.” You can read it here: www.ianchadwick.com/machiavelli/the-soviet-machiavelli/ Suslov was the power behind…
Harper Describes Himself
One of the more ludicrous things the Harper Government has been pursuing is creating a “monument to the victims of communism”. A more cold-war propaganda-esque move is almost unimaginable. But,…
Some Canadian content for Mayday (International Workers’…
Some Canadian content for Mayday (International Workers’ Day): This video is a documentary about the Toronto folk music group The Travellers, who started out in 1953, mixing traditional folk songs,…
Molly’sBlog 2013-10-25 22:00:00
NORMAN BETHUNE AND BLOOD TRANSFUSION: A GREAT CANADIAN LIE If you visit pretty well any Canadian government site, or one receiving its funding from the government, you will come across…
The un-Canadian Harper Conservatives recently announced they are…
The un-Canadian Harper Conservatives recently announced they are giving away $1.5 million of our tax dollars to fund a politically motivated monument with the misleading name Memorial to Victims of…
Tommy Douglas…Commie?
Probably not, but according to Dennis Gruending the RCMP spied on the guy for decades without coming to any firm conclusion. Didn’t they have some kind of test? Like tie…
http://issuu.com/randalljaykay/docs
http://issuu.com/randalljaykay/docs: The above link is to an archive of various scanned articles and newsletters from the 1980s and 1990s that are related to topics such as anti-fascism, radicalism, socialism, anarchism,…
Any fool who still says “better dead than red” in…
Any fool who still says “better dead than red” in this day and age should have to prove it. Try both options and get back to us.